The Life of the Moving Tree

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Jared Pugh

Elliot Coyle

English 130W 

February 5th, 2020

The Life of the Moving Tree

Life is an interesting thing, it has so many factors that shape are everyday lives. Each home across the continents, each new meeting with both good and bad endings, each friend happily gained, each enemy beguiling gained, each relationship acquired, and even every adorable pet that was hopefully fluffy that we’ve had influence who we are to this day and age. Every person has a complex story, and before the end of each story there is a bright beginning and an inevitable end. Everyone’s middle is different no matter how similar, regardless if their middle consists of one chapter or a thousand chapters. I imagine the book labeled, “The Life of Jared Denali Pugh, a tale of a Tall Gamer.”, will have those bright beginnings, dark end, and a humble amount of chapters that make up the middle.

I was born in Seattle on April 30th, 2000, on a rainy day like any other day in Seattle. From there, I lived in a small town right next to Seattle called Edmunds for the first seven years of my life. Those years were the simplest of my life, my biggest concern being my extremely annoying big sister. For the first five years, we lived in a modest home that wasn’t too big nor too small, then we moved to a much bigger house for the next two years of our time in the state of Washington. The time in that house was fun, plenty of space to explore and play. Then my mother

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somehow forced the entire family to move to California, where we would live in two different houses for the next 12 years.

The first house we moved into was located in a small town near Sacramento called El Dorado Hills, a small community that was hot as hell compared to our previous northern homes. I personally believe the seven years spent in Washington and the three years spent in El Dorado 

Hills is why I am so adapted to both hot and cold weather. This move was… difficult but since I was so young I got used to it quicker than everyone else. Family tensions were high, as is normal with any family when you force a troubled teenage girl to leave her entire life behind to move across multiple states just so her mother can be happy about their living arrangements. For the next three years I learned how to adapt to the heat and how Californians acted compared to the northern folk. I made good friends while I was there, but eventually after the third grade it was decided to move even further south to the coast. Ever since then, I’ve lived in an extremely small town along highway one called Moss Beach.

Moss Beach was technically a part of the beach town called Half Moon Bay, irrelevant since I still had to get small town customs, how you act with people and how not to sound like a big city jerk,  plus beach town customs. People there were more relaxed and eccentric than any other area I lived in before then. I spent nine years in that area, and those were the most important and the most influential years of my life considering those were the years that basically set the foundation of any persons personality. I learned how to have fun, how to learn from my mistakes, and how easy it is to bring joy to people. The previous years taught me how to adapt and survive, but Half Moon Bay taught me how to enjoy my life.

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Then I decided to come to Chico state to be a video game design major, that is honestly the beginning of this chapter of my story. In terms of the actual environment, like the weather, I have already experienced this type of weather so it didn’t really bother me, so my clothing style did not change at all upon my moving here. The populace to me were alright, after visiting Oakland it would take a trip to the shadiest parts of Detroit to actually make think less of people. The people of Chico are just people to me, some people say this town is shady but all I see are humans. Living away from immediate family was definitely new, but I clearly adapted quickly given my current status. I made friends, probably pissed people off (people do it all the time), and caused a few problems here and there. Overall, my time in Chico has been exactly what living in different places over the years has taught, that most places are just the same with a few different quirks here and there.

Nineteen years of life and what have I learned from the several environments I’ve lived in, from the rainy city of Seattle to the calm sea breeze town of Half Moon Bay. I’ve learned life is harsh but beautiful with its destructive natural events and chance meetings across the lands we call coincidence, how the temperature of the outside is honestly pathetic until you get past your prime where it then apparently becomes similar to hell on earth, and that for every hardship there is something fun that can be done in response no matter what lies ahead. My environments taught me how to survive and they taught me how to live, with a few cool tricks here and there that I consider impressive. No matter what people say, survival does not mean you are living your life unless you are surviving with a smile on your face.