Megan Griffiths

The Caterpillar Tree

"There's something different about me. Something that renders me unlike the other graduate students who come to Athens, Ohio each year to study at Ohio University. I was born here. I haven't lived my whole life here. By the time I came back to graduate school, I had been gone for 15 years and had lived in four other places. Upon my return, being curious about what 15 years had done to my old home, naturally that was one of my first stops. It was in great disrepair, but this being the case, nothing much had changed, only fallen into moderate decay. It looked smaller than I remembered, of course--all except one thing. Outside the house on Terrace Drive, there stands an apple tree. When I was little, my sister and I called it "The Caterpillar Tree" because it was always so covered with the furry insects that it almost seemed to be made of them. This tree was the one thing at my old inhabitance that appeared exactly as I remembered it, which got me thinking. It must have been growing along with me all these years--sort of an ecological counterpart. And while it may not be of great importance in size or grandeur, the caterpillar tree means something to me. It means you can always count on the environment around you to not only spark memories, but to ground you in a deeper understanding of where you came from."
-Megan Griffiths

© Megan Griffiths
"The Caterpillar Trees"
point(&click)alism--Photoshop drawing

Common Name: Common Apple
Latin Name: Malus Sylvestris
Circumference: 3 feet
Location: Athens, Ohio USA