Roots

This entry, if you couldn't tell, is about roots. Metaphorical roots that is. Everyone has them. “Roots” are what keep or connect us to a place. Just over two months ago, I “uprooted” myself from my childhood hometown, my close friends and relatives. 

My entire life had been spent in a small town central PA called Danville, which is most famous for the home Geisinger Medical Center (a hospital so big that it literally has its own ZIP code). Other than that, Danville Pa is just pretty much just another town, simply one of the many tiny freckles on the map of Pennsylvania.

However small my hometown is, I love it dearly. After all, it is my hometown, the place where I began. I was born there. I went to preschool, Kindergarten, and first through twelfth grade there. It was the place that started me on my journey, which has lead me to where I am now.

Back when I was about two, and still growing my vocabulary, I made a slip of the tongue that would forever change my life. While watching my parents do yard work outside of our house and being a normal two year old, I stumbled upon a little black snake. I was so excited about my find that I went to grab my mother to show her what I had discovered.

“Mommy, mommy!” I said pulling her over to the spot where I had seen the serpent. “Look! Worm!”

My mother, realizing of course that this was not a worm and being a mother yelled “No! SNAKE!” scooped me up and brought me back into the house.

My mom is a therapist. I realizing that what she had just done could possibly scar her young child for life started taking me to a local reptile zoo about 30 minutes from our house.

That was over 16 years ago. To this day I still go back there on a regular basis, but not as a guest. I intern there, and get to work with some of the nonvenomous animals. Volunteering there helped me to realize that I want to be a zoo keeper. That is how I ended up here in Huntingdon.

So two months ago, my parents, my sister and I packed all of my things into our two cars and made the 2 ½ hour trip from Danville to Huntingdon. Since I got here, I've had to start the process of planting my roots here. I've made some pretty awesome friends who are some of the funniest people I've ever met and always keep me on my toes and never fail to make me smile. I've planted some roots in the local synagogue and Jewish community. And of course, I've planted roots as a Juniata student. I've been woken up at the ungodly hour of 4 am to horns announcing Mountain Day. I've watched my classmates storm the arch. I've been to Standing Stone, the Cliffs, and survived eating predominately at Baker. Since I've been here, I've even already changed my POE from Biology/ Zoology to Environmental Sciences/Wildlife.  

All in all, I’m more than happy to set down roots here in Huntingdon Pa. Over the next four years, these roots will cause me to grow and change in ways that not I can even predict. Just as transplanting a plant to a bigger pot can help it flourish, I hope that being here will have the same effect on me.