My name is Kim, and my watermark comes from Little Green Lake in the Laurentians where we had our family cottage. Most of my memories there happened when I was quite young, when we'd spend a week there on and off during the summer; my mother, grandmother, two older sisters and I. At the age I was, I remember being afraid of actually stepping foot in the water, which could have been because I could not swim, or was petrified by the thought of the underwater plants touching my legs, although my curiosity about the embankment of our property was endless. I could spend all day with my feet in the shallows, watching as the fish nibbled at my toes, or attempted to deliver secret messages to our neighbours in plastic water bottles which would only sink (to be collected later by my grandmother).

While my sisters swam or fished, I would play on the swing set adjacent to the shore, or search for the largest tadpole I could find. In the evenings we'd roast marshmallows and hot dogs on the fire. But I never realized how much I cherished those times as an adult. I got older, and we went there less frequently, mainly because life got in the way.

But upon returning years later in my teens, I spent every day taking our metal boat out on the water, inspecting every inch of the lake perimeter, making note to ingrain all the new discoveries I made in my memories. I never gained the courage to immerse myself in the water, even after becoming an experienced swimmer. But I enjoyed Little Green Lake in every other way I knew possible. It was one of the best parts of my childhood, and is the inspiration to one day buy a property of my own, on a lake such as it.