Home

Home for me is the cottage I've gone to with my family that we've rented for nineteen years now. It's definitely where I've learned the most about myself and where I've always enjoyed going.

I met my best friends Kasey and Cam there; their mother's father is one of the three brothers who own the six cottages. We've been friends forever and their mother is a second mother to me, even though she's crazy at times. I've become a part of their family as they've become a part of mine. We go almost nine months without seeing each other yet when summer starts again, we pick up where we left off as if we've hung out every day in between Labor Day and Memorial Day. We listen to the same music, watch the same shows and have the majority of the same opinions. We've argued about everything stupid. I would be the one without a filter and she cried a lot. She got mad at me for having a crush on her cousin about six years ago; why this is not okay is beyond me (he was only twenty-one but we were meant to be)...but it wasn't. Kasey and I have always had the common goal of finding cute guys on the lake. This summer we learned how to wakeboard to impress some of them, because we're athletes, but actually the farthest thing from athletic, though committed to the cause. Regardless, mission accomplished. Cam and I hated each other for the first ten years of life, but that was due to cooties. He's usually my best friend when we both get tired of Kasey and when she doesn't appreciate my sarcastic sense of humor. There are few people I can stand to be on a boat with for the majority of the day, going around one lake over and over again. We make countless Disney Channel references (it's really sad being fifteen and seventeen years old and knowing ninety percent of Hannah Montana shows by heart, but we're actually incredibly proud).  I've never had a bad day at the lake. I get sick of Woburn in a solid two minutes but sitting on the boat or swimming for hours is the perfect day any day.
I'm always comfortable, laid back and free there. At school and even at home in Woburn I'm concerned with what people think of me but I don't get anxious about this at all at the lake. At the same time, I get to be vulnerable because I voice my opinions. There's no need for a filter or a mask because we can be honest. Because of the freedom we get, we become more independent and responsible for ourselves. There's not drama between us because none of us want to deal with it and one of us would have to apologize and we're too stubborn to do that.