If I'd ask you what this is, you'd say that it was just a piece of wood. Truth to be told, it is just a piece of wood, but not just any piece.

Ever since I was trusted to go to school by myself in 4th grade, I had always taken the same route to get to school. A small road with a nice tree row, which I passed both on the way there and on my way home. I'd had my bigger sister lead me through this tree row blindfolded, as a sort of trust experiment. By the same tree row, I had encountered one of my bullies, who started pushing me around and ruined my jacket after pushing me down a small ditch. I have TONS of memories from this tree row.

In 5th grade, this tree row was cut down, because it was in the way of the sun for the ones who lived close by. I saw them cut it down and I was devastated. There was pines, birches and Spruce trees growing in clusters within this place, but after one day of work, there was only a few birches and a couple of pines left. They basically erased my memories, in a way.

In 7th grade, I saw that there was a few spruces growing in this tree row and at the small trail, which had turned up thanks to how many people were crossing it, there was a small spruce which was aboot as high as my shoulders. I wasn't the tallest when I was 12, so this tree was very small. Every day, I passed this Spruce on my way too and from school and watched it grow taller for every week.

A few months later, I was going through a really tough time, where I was so depressed that I wanted to give up everything and run away from home. I was bullied by more or less everyone at school and at home, I spent all my day trying to just forget aboot the bastards that I had to share school with. I didn't have anyone that I felt I could talk to. One day, when I was going home from a particularly bad day in class, I walked the same route home, but instead of just walking past this spruce, I stood by it for a while and just looked at it. It was now almost taller than me and its stem was getting quite thick. My mind went flying and for some reason, I started talking to it. I asked it how it was doing. If it had seen any nice people pass by and after a while, I started talking aboot what I was going through. I don't know why I did it, but it felt quite good speaking out. I think I stood there and talked to it for a good 15 minutes before finally heading home.

Since that day, I always stopped and talked to it on my way home. I always spoke out to it, asked if it was doing well and sometimes, I even complimented it for its needles. I did that every day for almost three years; From the downs of 7th grade, to the graduation of 9th grade (Swedish Ground School). After I graduated, I started taking the bus to my new school, the High School I am in right now. This meant that I wouldn't be able to take this route again, so our talks were very sparse. Every time there had been a play or open house in my old school (which I went to because it was also my li'l bro's school), I would walk home, just to get some time to stop by and have a chat with this tree. Our meetings were so sparse that every time I saw it, I could easily see how much it had grown and it made me happy to see that it was doing well. the last time I passed the tree, it was after the Valborg celebration in the start of May. It was now almost double my height and extremely sturdy.

Today, I was going to my sister's boyfriend's place to celebrate his birthday. I decided to walk there, because that would give me an opportunity to talk to my old friend...

He wasn't there. All I could see was the birches that was left from when they cut down the tree row a few years earlier. It was a sunny day, today, so I thought that I didn't see him just because the sun covered him, but when I got closer, I saw that he really was gone. This tree, which I had watched grow for close to 10 years and had literally helped me in my darkest times... This insignificant little piece is all that's left of it. Sometime, during this last month, they had cut it down. As I'm typing this part of this message, I'm crying uncontrollably. This tree meant so much to me. I know it might sound a bit silly, but I owe a LOT to this tree.

I'm going to end this here, before it becomes way too long. I'm not in the best mood, at the moment... That's all for now!

Cheers...