When I was young at the lake, I remember everything I thought about water bodies, was proved wrong. All our family had known, were the saltwater beaches of Mexico. It was my first time seeing so much freshwater. Everything about the water seemed different, including the temperature. Back home in our much loved and cherished beach of Guayabitos, where we swam in the Pacific Ocean, the water was warm even in the winter. At Lake Huron, although it was the hottest day of the summer, the water felt as cold as the ice on the northern sea. I ran enthusiastically towards the water, only to startle myself with its cold temperature. I inched away, skeptically, until I couldn’t resist the temptation to see what the water was like. It wasn’t the water I had known.

When I was young at the lake, the pelicans I had once seen roaming the beach of Guayabitos, had disappeared. At the lake, all I could see were insects. The pelicans and iguanas and turtles of Guayabitos had turned into armies of insects on the lake. The atmosphere was different. I was expecting to hear the birds in the background. Instead, I heard the bees buzzing in my ear, startling me. It wasn’t only the animals that had changed the atmosphere, the mountains peeking from behind the hotels in Guayabitos were replaced with the forest at the Lake. I remember walking through the woods, to get to the lake. I heard the clicking and buzzing of thousands of insects. I remember focusing on the cicadas, and watching the enormous spider webs that would have caught an entire bird. The atmosphere was nothing I’d ever seen.

When I was young at the lake, the experience was nothing I had ever been exposed to. Everything I experienced at the lake made me realize my presence, still, and quiet, and calm, unlike Guayabitos, where people rushed past me, looking for customers who would buy their handmade products, and the ocean’s chaotic waves roaring through the beach, louder than the crowds. I loved Guayabitos as much as I loved Lake Huron. I treasured the memories at Guayabitos and Lake Huron. At the Lake, I appreciated the small things that not many pay attention to; It was peaceful, yet lonesome, like the rocks hurting my feet as I stepped into the ocean, the woodflies biting my skin, and they were the feelings I had never experienced.

At Lake Huron, I always felt joyful. I miss the joy of standing before the water and submerging myself for the first time. I miss the things I could only see or experience at Lake Huron; the seemingly dirty water, and my feet hurting as I walked on the rocks, and the cold temperature. Even though there are many differences between Guayabitos and Lake Huron, it’s what makes them both unique. The water is cold at Lake Huron because the winter chills the water for six months, and when summer
arrives and people feel hot, the water remains cold. Small things like these are what made the lake special to me, because Lake Huron was something I had never known before.