Photos of two dogs. The left is Lucy, a golden retriever, and the right is Luna, an Australian shepherd. Lucy is 12 years old, and Luna is 6.
Two chickens facing off to the left. These are different chickens from the ones that lived while I ran through the wood paths.
A mound of dirt, dead wood, and a tree stump. This is where ground hornets nested and where I was stung for the first time.
A large, open field parted in the middle by a dirt road. Some trees stand by the road in the center of the field.
A small path leading through the woods into the large field pictured previously. Some of the trees are beginning to fall here.
Practicing Cross Country
Several years ago, when I was in middle school, I participated in running cross country for my school. We ran just under 2-mile-long courses through woods, fields, and over hills. I have both fond and not-so-fond memories of running for my middle school team, but one piece of it that I did greatly enjoy was running through the forest near and around my parents’ house to practice for the meets. My family has owned a farm-like property for quite some time now, so I usually interacted with some of the animals while running, such as the dogs and chickens pictured above. The animals were kept in a fenced-in yard that the trail I used ran along, so I was always greeted by Lucy, the golden retriever, and Angel, a mutt who has since passed, where Luna took her place. These dogs would run with me, bark, and scare off the chickens as I sprinted by.
It was also during one of these laps on this trail that a hornet stung me for the first time in my life. A ground hornet’s nest lay underneath the mound of dirt and wood pictured above, originally topped by a tree before it fell over during a storm. This first encounter that I had with the hornet stinging me on the hand became one of the worst memories I had of running in cross country, and it left me with a permanent fear of hornets and wasps altogether. I have since overcome this fear (mostly), though I still always get that horrible sinking feeling when I spot one.
