This is my entry for Weekly Wattpad Contests #56 Contests

The Creek. That's what we called it, the little stream that flowed behind our plain suburban houses. It brought a touch of nature to our world of concrete. It was an escape. At school, we were students. At home, we were children. But in the creek, we were explorers, detectives, and spies. We built houses out of sticks, we foraged for berries, and we discovered fossils. This was our summer afternoons.

I sometimes wonder what we did the last time we played there.

I think there's a part of me that owes so much of who I am because of that creek. There's the adventurous part of me, the part that was born when I climbed to the top of Mud Mountain. It was only about ten feet or so, but it was slick. My parents were mad at us when they saw we had reached the top.

I owe a lot to Mud Mountain, but I probably owe a lot more to my brother. He was the one that wanted my sister and I to climb up there with him. He was the one that convinced me to ride my first rollercoaster or to go mountain biking for the first time.

And I think those kinds of people stay with me. They shape who I am.

Sometimes I wonder, though, if you take away all the parts of me that are from others, from my experiences, or from places, what part of me is uniquely my own?

I think that's an almost impossible question to answer. I don't even know for sure if there is a part of me that exists without influence.

But maybe it's better that we don't truly know ourselves. Of course, I would love to know if I'm kind enough, if I'm strong enough, if I can stand up for what I believe in if the opportunity arrives. I think , though, that that's the beauty of not knowing our true selves. We can strive to be the best person we can be without limitations, because we don't even know our limitations.

As I am right now, there's still a long way to go. I've made a lot of mistakes and halfway through writing this, I even made another. But I realize now that if I want people to accept me for who I am, with all my flaws, I need to learn to accept others. And I try to, I think.

But I know that it isn't my friends who make me uneasy, it's that I yearn for something else. I'm sure I'm not the only one. We yearn for adventure, romance, and all those wonderful things they tell you in storybooks.

I'm looking forward to the day when I get to experience those things. I want to go backpacking, I want to tour other countries, and I want to fall in love, as cheesy as that sounds.

I believe the world has plans for me, just as I have plans for myself. Though I know there's going to be tough times ahead, the future will be bright. It has to be.

One day I'll look back on those summer evenings spent playing in that little creek, not in longing for the simpler times, but in happiness in how far I've come to today. And maybe sometime in the future, I'll find another version of that little creek behind my backyard.