Hermit

The book My Side of the Mountain may not have been the first book I read, but it is the one that changed my life. It is a story about a boy who decides that he is going to live alone in the woods for a year. He tells his family—and they laugh at him, unbelieving—until he actually does it. He hollows out a tree to make his house, and makes acorn-pancakes for breakfast. He finds a falcon whom he names Frightful, and later, Frightful helps him catch dinner. It is a story about leaving home and choosing to be on one’s own. For many years, I thought that when I grew up, I would live as a hermit in the woods, far from people who I didn’t understand, and who didn’t understand me.

Like many kids who feel misunderstood, I spent a lot of time alone. Maybe being misunderstood turns into selfishness because it results in one’s focus only on self. Narcissism. This serves to only exacerbate the solitude, but maybe someone later in life will show the child how to get outside of his/her own mind in order to develop empathy and be able to interact with others. Some of us escape while others never get out.

---