When I was younger, perhaps the summer between 5th and 6th grade, me and my friends would always hang out in the woods behind my house. Day after day, we found something that gained our interest, and that’s all we did. On one hot summer day, we thought it would be fun to build a treehouse. I immediately went home and started drawing out designs of what I thought a cool treehouse would look like. I watched multiple videos on how to build and put it together. I was engaged in this idea.
Every day we had our parents buy us pieces of lumber from the store and haul it back to my house. We created a system of how we were each going to handle the project. I found that I was the one who was taking most of the responsibility and leading the group. Every time there was something that needed to be drilled or put together, I was the one who wanted to do it. I started getting connected with this project. Once it got dark and we had to go home, the only thing I looked forward to was the next day and being able to go work on the treehouse.
Working on the treehouse felt like a real job to all of us. It made us feel like we were all grown up and important. The project was meant to be just for fun. However, it gave purpose to all of us. I found a passion for building and creating things at such a young age. After a week of building the treehouse, we completed all the sides and platforms. The next days after, we spent building the roof. I became obsessed with the project and started to paint and design the treehouse after everyone had left. My parents were worried for a bit because they thought I was spending too much time out in the woods.
I finished building the treehouse after three weeks. We all got so excited because we created something that we didn’t think we could. I was filled with so much joy and happiness that I ran home, slammed through the door, went straight to my mom, and said, “we finished it!” She was so proud of me. After that day, I wanted to do more projects. I helped my dad cut down a tree in our front yard, we built a wall out of stones for landscaping, and built shelves to put in our garage for storage. That feeling of completing something and feeling proud is what I became obsessed with.
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