Well, it all started when I was three. I had always been the shortest sprout of the class, and my leaves could never quiet reach to the sun for light and warmth like all the other kids. That was only one of the reasons I became who I am today. I stayed short throughout elementary school. All my classmates had grown tall enough to grow up to be fine Christmas trees. But me, I was stuck down in the dark below the tree tops. They called me shorty, acorn, and twig. I had no friends and I felt so alone.
Gym was the worst. I failed at that class, because when all the other trees were standing still in their place, I was waving back and forth like I was flying in the breeze. It felt like I was actually dancing.
When I was 3 my dad was chopped down and made into toilet paper, and you can only imagine how mentally scaring that was for me growing up. I had to deal with my mother towering over me and wilting her petals all over the already horrible soil that surround my roots. My brothers and sisters didn't help any with their growing up and leaving the valley. They were chopped down 5 years after my dad, and were trucked off to be made into fine oak and maple business desks. Mom was proud, but she never was happy until I moved out.
This girl I met in high school came back to bite me in the trunk when after one of the squirrels that lived in my branches, pulled out some of her leaves to use as a nest, when I tried to give her a kiss. She fell over on me the next day during a 'freak' storm she said. Her big trunk broke three of my branches.
My mom wasn't thrilled the day I got my first tattoo either…Some hunters came by and sprayed some red paint on my trunk that said "Marker 3". My mom freaked because she thought it was the name of some kind of gang I had joined.
When I was 18 I lost my tree-ginity during the summer. Everyone said it was cool to cross pollinate so I thought I'd try it. I couldn't even remember the girl's name, but I knew she was in the forest next to us. Anyways, I couldn't even tell what type of tree she was because trees don't really know where their pollen is going to wind up when it gets caught in the wind. But I did here news of how our seeds and pine cones had made it through their first year of collage not to long ago.
The other trees also said fertilizer was cool too, but boy was I wrong. It took me two years in rehab to break that habit. That stuff is CRAZY!
Bottom line is, I was relocated last winter to a living room. I was this awesome family's Christmas tree for the year. They own this huge property, and every year they go out and dig up a tree for Christmas. Then instead of chopping it down for a one time use, they trimmed my roots, and kept me in a big bucket till Christmas was over.
I was decorated with popcorn and cool lights. I had never felt so confident in myself my whole life! They had done this with a different tree every year, and when they came upon me, they said," It's the perfect size!"
When Christmas was over they took off all but one decoration, and put me in the back yard where all the other trees were from the other Christmases. They welcomed me and I got to spend the rest of my years watching the family's children grow, and the forest of trees in the back of their house grow. They even made a tree house on me for one of their children's birthdays, so I could be a part of their adventures.
I finally started to grow, because there was sun all around me, I had room to grow. So I became bigger, and taller than all the other trees.
The children did grow up though, and leave the house. Saddest day of my life. The tree house got old and spiders took over it. I don't like spiders….
I watched the parents grow old together, which remember my mother and father. Seems that the life of a tree is much like the life of a human, we are ashes to ashes, (like my Uncle Marvin, who was fire wood) and humans are dust to dust.