Sam Smith Life Place Essay

Sam Smith

Life Place Essay Final Draft

An Ocean Runs Through Me

Just beyond the winding path of eucalyptus trees lies my favorite place: a dark cave filled with drift wood, kelp, and old beaten up shells lies one of my favorite places. Santa Cruz is just a short paddle from the cave. Santa Cruz is well known for its tourist attractions, such as the board walk and long stretches of beaches filled with boogie boarders, small giggling children, and honeymooners. 

But my favorite place is tucked away far enough that some local’s still don’t know about it. I grew up here, with family and friends, laughing and surfing. We call it Johnson’s Beach in memory of a good friend that unfortunately passed due to cancer six years back. Steve Johnson was an incredibly talented surfer who taught me everything I know. Not only was he good at surfing but he was also a fantastic person and one of my biggest role models. The beach is rather hard to get to; in order to reach its soft, sandy, wave beaten shores, you must climb down a steep cliff to get inside of my sea cave. 

The sea cave is massive and smells of kelp and salt. The echo of waves crashing reverberates off the cold, hard, rocky walls. Once you reach the bottom you must paddle out on your surfboard about 300 yards in order to reach the beach. On the shores of the beach shells that I collected as a youngster are plentiful. There’s absolutely no trash, the only proof that humans have been on the sands are old burnt pieces of drift wood that have been used for bonfires. Like the ones that my friends, family, and I have.

Bonfires are one of my favorite things about the beach. As a child there was nothing better than surfing all day and then building a fire with friends, eating warm food and then laying under the stars, talking about life while listening to waves crash and sometimes the dolphins whistling and jumping about in the surf. Johnson’s Beach is so special to me because of all of the time that I have spent there; all of the memories made and lessons learned helped make me who I am today. I went to the beach religiously until I reached the age of 18 and had to make a decision about where I wanted to attend college. I had to find a new place to call home. 

Finding a college was a very hard task for me. I have a very hard time adapting to new places, new people, and foreign situations. In a college, I was looking for a medium sized student body preferably between twenty to thirty thousand students. I was also looking for a change, I wanted out of California to see new environments and meet new types of people. In my search for colleges I stumbled upon The University of Montana. Located in Missoula, Montana in a valley surrounded by mountains, the weather is completely different than anything I have ever experienced: cold winters filled with snow. After visiting, I chose Missoula to be my new home. 

I arrived in August and I loved Missoula.The weather was nice, maybe a little too warm but it made rafting on the Clark Fork River, conveniently located about five minutes from campus, the perfect place to cool off at. Being away from home was also nice. Finally I could make all of my own decisions and not have a parent telling me what to do all of the time. After being dropped off and unpacking all of my things I immediately began to search for things I could relate with so that I could make Missoula my new home. I thoroughly enjoyed being close to the river, since being near a water source was always necessary for me. It reminded me of a home I used to live in, also located in Northern California where I skipped rocks and fish at small creek behind my house. Unfortunately,  the Clark Fork could not compare to the Pacific Ocean and its tremendous power. Surfing was always an outlet for me, and floating the river just was not quite the same.

However, after spending some time around the rocky shores of the Clark Fork I began to realize that I could relate. Although I could not hear the sound of crashing waves, I heard rushing water, faster and almost as powerful as the ocean that I love so deeply. I then glanced across the river and saw a group of students drinking, laughing, and running around. Suddenly I felt a wet nose on my back of my neck, startled, I turned around to see what had just rubbed against me. It was a Springer Spaniel followed by a family of six. This brought me back home where my house is ruled by a large family and Springer Spaniels. Maybe Missoula is more of a home to me than I really believed. I believe that a person can have many bioregions, and though some may be closer to the heart than others, people don’t have to be tied down to one. It is possible that with more time Missoula could grow to be one of my new homes. 

For a location to become my bioregion I need plenty of time and experiences. It is possible that I just didn’t give Missoula enough time. Being in Santa Cruz for so long, and getting to know the land so well is what brought it so close to my heart. This is also why I was so connected to the land, I made the trek to Johnson’s Beach so many times that it became home.

As winter break approached, Missoula turned cold and grey like a dismal blanket covering the city. I had never woken up to a temperature below thirty two degrees until waking up in Missoula on a December morning when it was a brisk two degrees. On mornings like these I yearn to be back on the shores of sunny Santa Cruz in my warm wet suit, taking on each and every wave that I could catch. This cold depressing winter weather demonstrated why Missoula wasn’t a home to me. Although I found the Clark Fork, which I could relate to, the weather made the transition from California to Missoula almost unbearable. 

While home for break the weather was stereotypical. Not a day of rain and the temperature never reached below sixty degrees. I took a couple of road trips to surf on my favorite beach. The shores were empty, no one around, just me and my best friend, our surf boards and the ocean. Once again I was in my bioregion, confident in my every move, and happy to be where I knew I belonged. As I paddled back to shore I picked up a couple of empty Doritos bags and it didn’t occur to me until now that this proved my theory right. I care about my bioregion and where I am from, I pick up trash and try to help sustain what is important to me.

Missoula was not the greatest fit for me but it did teach me how important my favorite place is to me. Santa Cruz is my bioregion, it is where truly I belong and where I am happy. I put in the extra effort in order to help sustain where I am in my element. Missoula’s Clark Fork River is a powerful river that I enjoy spending time around. But the rocky shores can not compare to the salty, soft shores where I grew up and learned to love.