Liam Gundlach
English 8
Personal essay
Lost in the Forest of Acorn People
It was late September, and shades of orange and red began to pop up in warm clumps,
painting the mountains in a collage of colors. Cool breezes rippled the trees, and leaves spiraled
to the ground, leaving autumnal piles. It’s on beautiful fall days like these that I would hike into
the state park to admire the beauty of nature. Sometimes even, I would bring up some crayons or
colored pencils to make drawings; only I could recognize them. Art was a big part of my life; it
gave me a chance to express myself without being judged, and I was always looking for new
ways to experiment. With this mindset, I came across something new: acorn people. There were
many different forms of acorn people, but I made the generic version using acorns as heads, pine
cones as bodies, and small twigs as appendages; it was all held together with hot glue. I would
then act out stories that my dad told, at night. The possibilities were only as limited as my
imagination and the number of materials I could gather. For that reason, when my parents said
we were going for a walk I grabbed by bag and readied myself for the hunt.
Our whole family left the house around noon. As my parents chatted, my plastic bag
was quickly filled with pine cones, and my baggy pockets with sharp acorns. We decided to take
a break and stopped at a picnic bench, giving me the perfect opportunity to count my loot. I
turned out my sagging pockets, and 30 some odd acorns poured out onto the aged wooden table.
A few spilled off, and joined their little friends on the moist forest floor. “One, two, three…” I
counted, placing them carefully back in my pockets as if they were valuable gems, “...35, 36, 37!
Mom! Dad! I got 37 acorns!” I looked up with exuberance, to find no one. They left me! I
thought to myself as I began to get angry. How could they just forget I was here! The anger
pulsed through my veins, and I stormed off, finding myself at a mysterious junction. I knew
where I was before, but this new territory was unfamiliar. Fear began to creep into my mind, and
my breaths quickened. I looked left to see a long twisted path where the trees seemed to move
closer and closer in, cutting off my escape. Shuddering, I turned my head to see the same thing
on my right. A crow’s cold caw echoed through the forest, and I lost it. Tears rolled down my
cheeks, and I sprinted off, with no Idea where I was going. Fear raged through my body,
adrenaline pumping. Faster and faster I ran, up, down, left, right, following trail after trail with
no idea where I was going. I must have run for at least half an hour because my 7-year-old body
gave out on me, and I collapsed to the ground in a mournful wail. There I lay, quietly
whimpering, with nobody to hear me, no one to feel my pain. And then I became silent.
Now that my head was clear, I could finally think about what had happened. I became
angry at my parents for leaving me, but instead of trying to find them again, I walked away and
soon found myself lost. A large grey squirrel popped up from behind an old rotting log and
scampered a couple feet closer to me. It turned its head inquisitively, as if it was trying to
understand what this small child was doing, but soon became bored and scampered up a large
beech tree. Hey! I thought to myself. I know that tree! I stood up anxiously looking around; I
know exactly where I am! A few minutes later, I was standing on the TA soccer field. I could see
my parents walking around without a clue that I had disappeared.
There were many things that I learned from that incident, but the most important of
them all was that sometimes I need to not act on impulse. When I thought my parents left me, I
became angry instead of trying to find them again. This lead to being lost, and although it was
terrifying, taught me to calm down before I make irrational decisions. Ever since I was lost in the
forest of acorn people, my reactions have been less impulsive. I try to think more about what’s
happening and make a smart decision.
