Though I’ve been lucky to travel to many places, one place I know very well is a local beach near where I grew up. Mentor Headlands Beach, which lies along Lake Erie, is less than a ten-minute drive from where I grew up. Headlands Beach is not a particularly impressive beach; its usually littered with some trash and the lake constantly has a fishy smell that is common in Northeast Ohio. Despite these facts, it is still an unexpected find in Ohio’s suburbia and is a perfect spot on nice days. On hot summer days the beach is packed with local swimmers, and at night people walk the beach and watch the sunset.
I consider this the spot I know the best because throughout the past couple years, the beach has been a part of the major events in my life. Whether it was a good experience or a bad experience, my friends and I often ended back at Headlands Beach. It served as a place of celebration as well as an escape. For example, each birthday, graduation, and break from school was supplemented with a trip to the beach. On the last day of school we always headed straight there, and it was always our first stop when someone got their license. Our days off were spent walking the beach and visiting the old lighthouse.
Alternately, Headlands Beach was one of the best escapes my friends and I found when we ran into issues. For example, when one of our good friends moved away we spent our last day at Headlands Beach. It also hosted many long discussions about family issues and relationships. This beach was a large part of my life growing up, and for that reason I consider it the place I know the best.
i liked how you described that this place is special to you during both good and bad times
ReplyDeleteThis beach sounds great. I live in the Cleveland area so now I will have to go visit it. I like that this beach fostered your growing years and it seems like a place you could come back to many years from now and remember every smell, taste, and memory.
ReplyDeleteYou express well the beach's importance as the setting for many important times. You might think about how to express that sense of yourself as a changing, growing person in terms of how you saw the beach as a place. I say this because the beach is presented as static and remains a bit vague to the reader. Nice photo!
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