Editor’s note: Enumclaw Middle School students wrote essays about how places around the Plateau shaped their identity. Six essays have been selected to be published in the Courier-Herald at the end of the month, every other month; they have been minimally edited to retain the author’s voice. This is the fifth of the six essays.

On the quiet Loraine Street in Enumclaw sits a tan house, with a big backyard. This is the place where I lived for 7 years.

Out the back door, my dog runs out to the left, where there is a dog run covered in red rocks and surrounded by tall trees. There is one ginormous tree, perfect for climbing. Every year the leaves would fall off and my cousins and I would chase them as they fell. They would fall on the trampoline, leaving the perfect pile of leaves to jump into.

Past the dog run is the place where my first two dogs (Bruno and Aki) were buried. I remember the night we buried Bruno and Aki jumped into the grave. I started to cry, my dad scooped her up and held her while we paid our respects to Bruno.

If you walk out the door and look to the left corner, you would see my playhouse. My dad and I built the playhouse together, we designed every piece with care. We wanted it to be the perfect spot for me to play. We put carpet inside to make it cozy, and we slept out there in the summer. When we eventually moved, we couldn’t bear to leave it behind so we put it on the back of my dad’s truck and moved it over.

We had a big garden (before I dug it up) off to the right. My parents bought me a sit-on excavator from a garage sale that I played with for hours, digging holes I thought would lead to my cousin’s house in Lakeland Hills. Sometimes my neighbor’s dog would sneak through a loose fence board and get in through the garden. It was always a surprise to look out and see their big dog out back.

My favorite tree in the whole yard had a name. Tre-ee was special. I climbed that tree more times than I could ever know. Its leaves were perfect and not too rough. When we moved, I took a special time to go say goodbye to that tree that had been such a safe place for me for so many years.

This yard was where I grew up. I spent half of my life in that yard, climbing those trees and running around. I have so many memories with my friends and my family there.

I think in a lot of ways this yard raised me. I learned a lot of life lessons there and spent so much time with people I love there.