I’ve been coming to the Morton Arboretum since I was two. I practically grew up in it, surrounded by trees and fascination, and with it, as I’ve helped see it from small buildings to a massive visitor center, beautiful Children’s Garden, and many other supplementary structures to help learn about and protect the trees. Make no mistake, I have not been here since its beginning; an arbor as rich and diverse as this one does not spring up overnight. The Morton Arboretum has been around since 1922, ninety-five years old as of now. I have had the good fortune to catch it in the position that it is now; a well-developed sanctuary. From the very beginning of my adventures in the Morton Arboretum, I was given the wonder and awe that tree connoisseurs often have. Educators provided ways for learning, excitement, and beauty to meet along a common path. I don’t remember much about the construction of the Visitor’s Center, but the genesis of the Children’s Garden was revolutionary to a kid like me. I grew up with a fascination of the forest and a desire to explore, …show more content…
Even as I grew older, there was always something to catch my current interests. It is a very diverse place, with appeal to nearly every mood and intention to be there, and to be perfectly honest, no two visits are the same. Now, we are still frequent visitors, and often go to the Arboretum grounds for work, hiking, special events, or just as an escape from the pressures of the human world. Personally, I never completely grew out of the Children’s Garden and its sense of discovery, so I was really excited to find out that they had a special program for teens to volunteer there to work the gardens and interact with the visitors. I applied and thankfully made it, and I’m still there for now. I absolutely love playing with the kids and hopefully instilling in them the sense of total awesomeness that I got from being there as a