Kids Should Climb Trees More

Remember climbing trees? I can't imagine getting myself up there nowadays, but I remember spending hours in this very tree that Tania climbs today in my parents' backyard. She climbs the tree and stays up there for so long. I don't know what she's doing up there, but I remember what I used to do up there. I used to just pretend I was someone else. Sometimes I was hiding from someone, and the tree was my secret hiding place. Sometimes the tree was where I lived. One branch was the kitchen, one was the living room, and one was my bedroom. I would lay down on a branch just to prove that I could sleep there if I wanted. Sometimes I would go up there because my little brother was not big enough to climb yet. I would grow tired of playing with him and would climb up to escape and hide. Sometimes I would go up there to pretend I was a spy. I would bring binoculars up with me and try to catch some action at the neighbors' houses. I would freak myself out, telling myself that I had seen something strange, when I really had seen nothing out of the ordinary at all. Sometimes I would bring a book up there with me. I had a little spot up there that was perfect for sitting and reading. The house was too noisy to read in, so I would go up into my little retreat. Sometimes I would bring my journal up in the tree. I wanted no one to see me write in it, so I would climb as high as I possibly could climb and write everything that crossed my mind. Sometimes I would leave my journal up there so that no one could look in it. Sometimes I would tie little string bracelets that I had made up there, as if to mark my territory. I wonder if they're still up there. Nah, I would have heard about it.

I wonder what Tania does when she's up there.