In the middle of 4^th grade my mom packed my brother and I up and moved us to another city.  We moved into the apartment complex where she was an assistant manager.  Down the street from the apartment community there was a park where my brother and I often went to hang out and play.  This park became my refuge from the things that bothered me and scared me. It became my home away from home. Considering we moved about every two years, it seemed that this was the one place in my childhood that I went back to. It felt safe to me and was familiar.

As I got older, I continued to go back to this park.  After park hours I would find myself sitting on the swing set or sitting inside the cave with holes. As time went on I had one friend who would join me on these visits to this park. We would sit for as long as we could in the park on warm nights. When it grew too cold to sit outside comfortably we would sit in either her car or mine and just talk about the things going on in our lives.

After I graduated from high school and moved again to another area of the Phoenix suburb I continued to visit this park, but it became less and less often. Most everyone I knew had moved out shortly after graduation and I was still living at home, so going to this park was a little more out of the way. Given it was roughly 7.5 miles away, but it became less frequent none the less.

My friend moved a few miles away and we eventually found another park that we called “our” park, where we would spend Friday and sometimes Saturday nights just sitting in this park. However, when things got rough for either of us, we would both find ourselves driving to the park we called our “home”. It always seemed to welcome us with open arms and very little changed about it over the years.  It was in the area for us that was also known as our “old stomping grounds” close to where we both lived most of our teen years.

Before I left AZ I didn’t go visit either park. The one that was known as “our” park didn’t seem as fun after my friend got pregnant and our lives slowly started changing. Although I went back to AZ for my brother’s graduation, I didn’t go visit the park I refer to as “home”. I find myself missing it a great deal from time to time.

Yesterday I took my children to a new park in town since it was such a nice and warm day out.  With my camera in hand and my children at play I walked around shooting pictures of them. I stopped for a moment while taking pictures of my children playing and looked over to see my friend and two acquaintances sitting on the park bench watching the children. For a moment I didn’t feel like an adult. I felt like I had found a park again that I could feel comfortable and connect with. My children loved the new park we went to which made it a plus as well.  I hope that my children will find a place that they feel as comfortable at like what I was able to do and build memories that will last a life time.