From the clear blueish greenish water –
the fish swimming miles below.

The soft hum of the boat motors in the distance
to the sun beating down on us.

With the beads of sweat washing away as we jump in the water –
the clouds that are nowhere to be found.

I may be biased but you are the best –
Higgins Lake.

My most favorite place on earth.

Pink, purple, orange, yellow streak across the sky as the sun goes down.
The butterflies softly flying overhead making their trip south.
Children laughing nearby.
Music blasting but is practically quiet.
The air becomes humid and sticky as the bugs come out at night.

No stress and worries about life beyond the lake.
The same neighbors I grew up with.

Higgins Lake –
the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

The new metal dock will never do justice to the old wooden one.
The picnic tables haven’t been touched in years.
Water rushing through the dam into the river.
Thousands of houses on the lake yet mine is of the few on the river.

Hundreds of people yet I’m friends with you,
Higgins Lake.

Words from the Author
Katherine Brown

I wrote this piece based on my favorite place and where I have spent a lot of my time growing up, Higgins Lake. My cottage has been in my family for over 40 years. Every summer I have spent almost every day on the lake. I met some of my best friends from this place and have known them for almost my entire life. I decided to write this as summer is getting closer but is still months away, I am practically counting down the days until it is warm enough to go swimming again. I have hundreds of sunset pictures on my phone since every night I am at the lake I always go down to watch the sunset.

Revision Decision

I knew that I wanted my overall theme to be about Higgins Lake but I didn’t know exactly how I wanted to present my thoughts. I originally wrote just about the sunsets, but I felt that it didn’t do the whole lake justice by only focusing on one certain thing. I also wrote the lake as if I was talking about a person but it didn’t really make sense. I ended up with this idea, I wanted it to feel like the reader was seeing what I was writing about. I really wanted to emphasize the beauty of the lake by not only words but by imagination.