Response to Karen's Post: My Tintern Abbey

After reading this post I realized that Karen's story was similar to one of my own. Though I have never read the poem Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth, I can relate to it as if I were him. I tried remembering a place that I had the most attachment to, and calmed me down, and I could only come up with one. The pond in my backyard was the only place that I felt the most connection to. There were other places that I could have chosen, but the pond felt to be most peaceful place to be.
I remember when I moved into from my old house to the new one that I now am living. I went to the back yard to check it out, because as a kid you want a big backyard to play a lot of games. As I was wondering through the back yard I discovered a small pond that was located at the far corner in the back yard. I remembered that it was very slimy and mossy all around the edges of the pond. But in the middle of the pond was this clean surface, as if it were never touched by any outside debris. It looked so peaceful and untainted in the middle, and I would glance at it and see the reflection of the clouds in the sky.
At the time I was with my twin brother, and if no one else could tell we were pretty much complete opposites. I was always the calm one who didn’t cry all the time and I didn’t really care what was going. My brother on the other hand was very loud, annoying and simply too much to handle. He was also with me in the backyard when I discovered the pond. He did not take in the majestic scenery that I saw, so instead, he picked up a rock and launched into the middle of the water. As the rock was airborne, I felt a sense of displeasure. When it broke the surface of the water and clunked right the middle of the pond I was not at peace. I lost my temper and I ran to my brother and yelled at him for doing that as well as push him away from the pond.
During the next few years, the pond seemed to take on a different look. It was getting smaller and smaller. I remember trying to fill up the pond by running a hose from the side of the house to the pond, but of course, I did not realize that the hose was not long enough to reach the pond. I felt like I have failed to save this pond, but my father was looking from outside of the window and saw my failed attempt to save the pond. I felt helpless to save the pond as it became a small puddle, and eventually dried out. I was not the same as I was before; I was always tense and uneasy.
One day I saw my father at the same spot where the pond used to be and he was carrying a shovel in one hand and I did not understand what he was doing, but he said it was a surprise. For weeks I did not want to know what he was doing, until he calls me over o the spot where the pond was. I could not believe my eyes, right there, in front of me was a pond, just like the one I saw years before. I did not know the feeling that I had, but I felt like I was completed. I felt so much at peace to stare at the middle of the pond, still untouched and quiet. Years would pass and the pond still looks the same as we left it. I still remember myself, a few weeks before college started, I was in front of the pond gazing at the mysterious beauty, I noticed that I saw life beginning to stir up. I looked closer, and I saw tadpoles, and fish in the water. I thought to myself that this was an amazing gift that this pond has brought me and I can still remember it till this very day. One day, when I live in my own house, I am going to build a pond in remembrance to the one that I have been growing up with as a child.