Tofino

I am a 17 year old boy from Suwanee, Georgia. I was raised in a suburban town to a set of divorced parents. My mother traveled to Tofino on her honeymoon with my step-father. They fell in love with it and using their mid-upper class earnings, purchased a condo in the area. They see the place as a beautiful area with marvelous trails for hiking and a great place for my younger brother to go surfing. Myself however went there at age 14 for the first time. I was a 5 foot 5 inch 190 pound akward child. I found myself too self-conscious to desire to surf with my brother, as I was too embarassed to subject myself to the teasing or failure I may have encountered. Being a younger child especially of the current culture our children go through, I found myself staying in the condo quite a bit as well and watching TV and simply squandering my time in this beautiful place. I took this place for granted because I failed to see the beauty of this nearly untouched place. Over the course of the following years, I lost some weight and I found myself wandering this beautiful town. By foot or with the assistance of a bicycle I spent many of my days lost in thought atop a rock formation, or walking through woods and exploring and finally coming to terms with this peculiar and marvelous place, and it deeply saddens me to see the swarms of tourists (such as myself) corrupting this amazing place.
-Patrick Goral