There have always been two trees that stand in our school, but there was a third. I have sat at all three, and have found that each one has its own personality, and different people that they attract. Now most people sit under shade structures, with everyone else. But under the trees were the ones that desired freedom, either from the masses or just from the tables. People went to the trees to be away from everything else. If nothing else, the people under the trees share that.

The Tree on the Border:

Now the first tree that I sat at as which I created from the ruins of the group I drove out. I had been drifting around the courtyard for some time, but I could never really find a place to sit that would actually grow with me. In my wanderings, I had been approached by my friends to come with them to their table, but I couldn’t give in after what I had done to deserve my self-exile, so I continued. Eventually, I settled in near “The Tree on the Border”, the small tree on the far side of the courtyard, away from the main grouping of tables. There were three girls who sat there, but I slowly moved in, and they slowly moved out. As time passed at what was then my tree, people came to what I had created. There were four of us, and we soon expanded, with visitors and new residents coming in equal terms. The people there were calm and funny, but they lacked all sense of drive. They stagnated, and soon fell into disrepair. They couldn’t move on from what had been made, leaving little room for improvement. It grew into a place where people met to laugh at insults, but it was still good because there were still some days of improvement. The problem was, no one tried to pick up the pieces that had been cast aside. No one ever tried to make it a good place again, so it was left in ruin and decay. Those that sit there now aren’t as happy, aren’t as random, aren’t as full of life: instead they had it all stripped away by the loss of their joy and imagination. That in itself drove me to a better place.

The Emo Tree:

The Emo Tree, as it is commonly referred to now, has only existed for a short while. There was once another tree, now a stump, that was the true Emo tree, but it is no more. The Emo tree is thought to be inhabited by the loners, the weirdoes, the outcasts. The thing is, it has some of the coolest people around. I’d been friends with a few of them for quite some time before I left the other tree, but I didn’t realize exactly what everyone else was missing. I’ve always been of the mind that weird was the best, but this truly brought that to life. The people there were great, they were random, and they were ever-changing. They showed exactly what I thought; those who are different have the best lives. They were not stuck at the same point of arguments and fights. Everything was thrown as a joke, and it was obvious. It wasn’t that they were immature, it was that they were mature but knew better than to stay that way. You have to become an adult in body, but you can stay as a kid forever in your heart. One quote that I love is, “Women rarely look their age, Men never act it.” But I believe this should apply to everyone. Once you’ve lost your imagination, you are nothing but a drone. The people under the Emo tree have denied that, if only for a little while longer. Their individualism is what makes life good, and I thank them all for that.