This is a college application essay that I came across when I was a senior in high school. Among piles of cutthroat overbearing emo essays, the slow, simple, and elegant tone of this one stood out and has stayed with me ever since.
Also for a winter of many years ago that still remains refreshingly beautiful in my mind.
Season’s Flag
When the golden brown leaves begin to crunch underneath my feet and the temperatures begin to drop, the flag, which hangs over our garage and blows with every cool, crisp breeze of a fall day, is decorated with a funny looking jack-o-lantern and a scary old witches broom. A rickety, antique wagon holds purple, red, and orange mums that will soon die when winter comes barreling in. This fall scene stands in front of my house until a turkey is baked and the sweet smell of a pumpkin pie mingles in the chilly, brisk air.
Little white lights shine brightly through newly fallen snow. A snowstorm has draped my front yard with a blanket of snow like a freshly washed sheet covers a newly made bed. The flag, heavy with snow, shows a picture of a jolly old man dressed in red, a replica of the plastic figure those guards our front door. The weather outside is so cold that the kitchen tiles indoors are like a sheet of ice, too frigid to walk on with bare feet. An evergreen wreath, dressed in a gold and red ribbon, sways back and forth as a frigid wind blows threw my front porch. This wind lifts the snow up off the icy bricks and places it back down on the other side of the stoop. When the last snow has fallen and the ice on my driveway begins to melt away, my mother will come outside and change the flag to match the rising temperature.
Although a chill still lingers in the air, children run through the recently green grass in shorts and t-shirts. The kids are too stubborn and too excited to believe that a bit of winter is still lingering in the shadows, like death lurking behind the hospital bed of a dying man. Spring, like a newborn baby, is happily welcomed into the world and embraced with open arms that have patiently waited for its arrival. The trees are green, the sun is warm, and the people are happier. School is near it’s ending and summer is creeping around every corner, waiting to begin. Blooming rapidly as they spread blankets of color and life throughout my front yard, the flowers are being watered by my mother and flown through by a buzzing bumblebee. A baseball bat and ball are plastered onto a proudly flown flag, which is hung like a coat of arms over my garage.
Slithering down the curves of my cheek as a waterfall slides down the side of a mountain, sweat pours from my forehead as I lie out on the scorching hot sand of an overcrowded beach. At home, my front porch holds huge flowers begging for a drop of water and swim floats searching for their rightful place in my backyard’s pool. The flag, now hung from the poolside deck, holds a little girl with blonde pigtails and a snorkel. A pitcher of lemonade has droplets of water skating down the side of a clear, glass vase, as a thirsty swimmer pours it over and allows the lemonade to travel from the pitcher to a small, plastic glass. The thermometers are about to explode with the rapidly rising temperatures and the lazy days of summer are lying on a pool float drifting around day by day.
The season’s change, the temperatures vary, and the weather fluctuates. The flag that hangs over my garage matches and enhances each season at hand as a pearl necklace accessorizes a new black dress. Like the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, the changing of the flag comes with every new season. The seasons are welcomed at my house with open arms and flown proudly from atop my garage.
Monday, December 27, 2010
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