Category: A Better You

Last weekend, I (briefly) visited Conesus Lake, one of the smaller Finger Lakes. We visited the lake at the very top of it, at a place called Vitale Park.

This was my first time there since 2008 when I first visited Conesus Lake – and that very same park – with my aunt, and it really just hit me how we can return to places and have such different experiences years later, and reflect on how much has changed in that span of time.

For instance, my visit in 2008 was with my aunt, whom I love dearly and only get to see a couple of times a year. It was my first-ever Finger Lakes trip, but I still remember it pretty well. We stayed in the area with one of her friends and their family for a weekend, and the park was our last stop before heading back to Buffalo. It was sometime in the summer – August, I believe. I was 17, newly graduated from high school and heading to college.

This visit, it’s 2014, mid-December, with my boyfriend – his first-ever Finger Lakes trip.

We only briefly visited the lake, as we had spent some time in Rochester, about 30 minutes north. But I suggested the visit because of its proximity, and I thought it would be a nice little excursion before returning to reality. The lake was mostly not frozen and it was just as beautiful as it was back in 2008. I’m 24 now, and so much in my life has changed since that first trip.

Obviously that’s to be expected – it’s six years later, after all, so of course things aren’t the same!

I’ve certainly grown in many ways, emotionally, spiritually, mentally. But my life has also grown, and it is becoming exactly what I want it to be. I’m shaping my life and I will continue to do this as the years pass.

I suppose it’s just a nice feeling to have all of these things changed in my life and yet be able to return to a place I visited years ago and have another wonderful experience there. It’s like I’m constantly going forward and have made so many steps in those years, but I was still able to go back, and on even better terms.