Out behind my house, there is a row of soaring high pine trees. Across from the row of trees, there is a small white wooden building with some paint peeled off on it is a ladder that goes to a balcony. From on top of that balcony, I can see the green backyards of all my neighbors. As I stand there, looking out past the rows of gray steel fences I can see the places where I used to have wild adventures and play games with my friends. This is important to me because I associate these backyards with many of my childhood memories, they gave me a place to play with my friends well at the same time giving me a place to get into trouble.  

I have grown up living in the same old white house my whole life, and those brightly green yards have been there for as long as I can remember. I have so many memories of them. Some of my best memories happened very long ago before I was even in school. Me, my brother, and our neighbor matt would run around the yards and play all sorts of games. Some being hide and seek, try to hit the neighbor’s cat with a rock (probably not our brightest idea), and tag. Out of all the games the most fun was hide and seek. I would always go hide in the giant pine trees and end up with huge needles poking holes in my shirt but I always won.  

However, memories of the games we played are not the only memories that place holds. Growing up, I spent an immense amount of time getting into trouble and just making narrow escapes from my neighbors. I remember this time it was a blazing hot summer day me and my brother were off from school. We were wondering the backyards when we saw a this small rectangular metal cage that was used to catch squirrels. It was shaking uncontrollably so we looked inside and there was a big chubby rabbit trying to escape. It took us fifteen minutes to open it, but right as we did the owner of the house came outside and saw us. Adrenaline rushing threw us we both ran different ways the girls high pitched yells still ingrained into my brain, but we got away.

As I get older though the memories of the games and trouble I used to get into will be forgotten. I don’t like to think about this, but it’s hard not to because of my grandpa. He was just recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and the doctors said it would take about a year for us to notice anything. That seems like a long time but that doesn’t take away the fact that he’s slowly losing his memory. When I go back to that balcony now I can’t help cherishing the memories because I know one day they might die.