I was all packed and just about ready to go. This was the last day of summer camp and the end of my one week excuse not to wash any dishes. Everywhere you looked kids were signing each other's autograph books and exchanging phone numbers.

I, myself had rather enjoyed the week. I felt that I had learned a lot about the Bible (after all this was a Christian camp) or at least enough to be able to impress my mom and earn some more brownie points. But what I didn't know was that I was about to learn more about myself from one single experience that day, than I had learned the entire week. And that it wouldn't be until nearly 7 years later that I would be able to fully understand it.

It so happened that my ride was running late so I decided to do a final bit of exploring. I had wandered over to section on the outskirts of camp that I had seen a lot but hadn't previously gone into before. It was one of those dark shaded areas without a lot of vegetation on the ground. As it happened I wandered across a pile of boulders surrounding what appeared to be a large stump. With my curiosity piqued I decided to walk around to the other side of the pile of boulders to see if I could make anything else out.

At first I still thought this was just another large stump. But as I began to step back and looked up I realized that this indeed was a tree. And to top that this wasn't just any ordinary tree, it was a giant redwood! As I stepped further back I began to see just how massive this tree was. It must have measured at least 75 feet in circumference and was so tall that I couldn't even see the top of it. I also began to see just how distinctive it's red coloring was. It stood out from the other pines with it's unique crimson identity.

After admiring it from a distance for a while I began to take notice of it's distinctive bark. As I came closer to the tree to touch it I could see that the bark had been peeled away it some areas and had initials and other things carved in other places. Slowly I reached out my hand to touch the tree and was surprised to find out how soft the bark felt. It seemed as if the bark had a power of it's own, for in those places where it had been stripped it had begun to grow back and in those places where it was scarred from carving ,it seemed to be slowly, but surely healing these traumas.

When I arrived back at camp I saw that my ride arrived and been waiting for some time. I quickly loaded up my stuff and exchange good-byes with a few companions who were standing around. As I prepared for the long ride back to the city I turned one final time to look in the direction of where I had seen the tree. There it stood in all of it's magnificent splendor. With it's massive build and distinctive color it almost appeared to be radiating from the forest. And it was at that moment I began to wonder why I had never taken notice of it before.

Seven years have gone by since that faithful summer and it is only now that have begun to realize what that entire experience meant. I now know just how important that that redwood tree was in telling me about myself. For you see that redwood tree represented physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of me.

The physical aspect was rather easy to draw. Being 6'2" and weighing nearly 300 lbs. I tend to identify with large objects anyway. But the other two were not so apparent at first and it has taken these years at Cal Poly to really open my eyes to another level of meaning.

Being an African-American has been something that I have always took for granted. But just as the crimson color of that redwood gave it it's unique identity, so I have come to realize that the color of my skin means something more. It is not merely an accident of birth, but it is an integral part of who I am. It is both my link to the past and my key to the future.

The final aspect, that of my spirituality I liken unto the bark on that tree. In the same way that this tree drew on its power to heal when it was hurt, so also being a Christian has taught me to draw on the Lord in my times of need.

Perhaps it might seem unusual to take lessons from a piece of wood . And it might seem just plain silly to think that a tree could teach you something about yourself that you hadn't even thought about. But when you consider what we use the majority of trees for anyway, how strange does it really seem that the very thing which we do our learning from, can teach us long before the ink is even applied.