Katrina Thornley

We all come from somewhere. We all have our roots set deep in some location, or in a person. We can trace our happiness to a moment in time, a smile, a body of water. There are events in our lives that have shaped us into the people we have become or are in the process of becoming.
I have known the location of my roots for a few years now. It is a pond down the road from my house, Browning Mill Pond. It is a 4 minute drive, sometimes 2. A 17 minute walk unless I have to race home before I’m late for chores. It is a best friend, a guardian, a whispering angel. As time goes by my roots seem to be digging deeper. I find myself at the pond multiple times a week. In the Summer I will most likely be there every day, breathing in the fresh air, listening to the wind talking through the leaves of the trees. It will set my nerves at ease. It will inspire me as it always does.
Here I learned to fish, I learned to be alone. I found comfort in my own company. I learned to relax, sitting on a fallen tree reading a book, dangling my feet towards the water as I revised a story. I played with friends, swapped presents, had pizza picnics, birthday lunches, sledding adventures, and even rock skipping in the middle of February with my oldest friend. I discovered who I want to be, who I should be, who I hope to be. I’m a work in progress, but this location has saved me. In many ways, in too many ways. It gave me the confidence to end an abusive relationship, provided a safe haven on days where I couldn’t escape my own mind, and on good days amplified my happiness. When I feel trapped I find my way here and feel everything within release.
It gives me a sense of hope: it’s stability has reassured me throughout the years. As I meet more people I discover that it has done the same thing for them. It has provided a place for relationships to begin and grow stronger. It has given families a place to spend time with one another outside of the busy world that we all exist in. It has given individuals a way and a place to express their individuality (through paintings, photography, and through writing).
I fell in love with my town after I fell in love with this location. It made me want to stay. It made me want to have a family here so that I could raise them by the pond, so I could teach them to fish and hike and about the trees and the wild animals that live here. I wanted to continue a tradition that has existed for generations in Exeter, Richmond, and West Greeenwich. Now I have to help it, save it, stop it from being developed with the help of people in my community that I never would have known existed had it not been for this place.
By saving it I save myself.