Describe a pace or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there and why is it meaningful to you? Kids now days might deem a place without internet, games consoles and cable as a nightmare, hell, a place of agony, I deem it as a place of serenity, comfort and wholeness. I call that place Las Cruses, New Mexico. Immediately after crossing into New Mexico County I feel welcomed, as if it’s been waiting for me to come back since I left. There is a New Mexico welcome center awaiting me just two miles away from entering the county, outside the actual building there is a sculpture of a road runner standing 35 ft. tall made of shoes. All kinds of shoes sneakers, heels, flats all kinds of sizes, yes it stinks a bit but it holds a small part of a lot of New Mexico residents including me, if you look closely you’ll see a little white shoe that belonged to a little bubbly Alma. If it wasn’t the welcoming essence of the city it was the hundreds of types of cacti that inundated the rural part of town that awed me or maybe it was the miles of pecan trees that surrounded the suburban part of town I felt as if I was one with nature, as if I couldn’t get closer. Every adobe style house had its own personality they were all classic colorful and sheik and not one failed to have an Aztec sun outside of it. Even when the sun went down I had something to look forward to, I could spend the whole night looking up at the clear, clean sky that accommodated billions of stars I felt as I was able to climb onto a ladder and grab a star. I spent most of my time outside were there infinite possibilities of amusement; there was nothing to do inside. Poop, pee and spit are what the animals on my aunt’s farm produced on a daily basis but I didn’t care I still played and fed them. When I wasn’t dirtying my hands with hay I was dirtying my knees helping my dad outside in his garden, radishes, carrots and cilantro were served on a daily basis, surely I had my own garden were I had many sun flowers and altheas . Here in California I have dozens of beaches to indulge in, in Las Cruses I had White Sands Park a white gypsum and calcium sulfate beauty it was what looked like miles of white dessert. My brother was my partner in crime together we let the rabbit run about my dad’s garden and indulge in all his vegetables and let the dog of his leash and gnaw on my mom’s wooden patio set, our punishment usually was we have to stay inside and watch public television cartoons. Halloween in the year two thousand one in Las Cruses was epic, while other girls were buying their extravagant witch costumes that came with twenty dollar plastic brooms and the tallest pointiest hats I’ve ever seen I was stuck, being the youngest of 6 kids my parents couldn’t possibly afford to buy me one of those costumes but I remember my older siblings bragging about their plans to go watch the Mummy 2 so I asked my dad to take me to the dollar store and we bought 8 packets of gauze bandages and the next day i gladly and numbly accepted my award at school. Las Cruses in its beauties and hardships is the place where I’d always love to be. In the summer it means barbeques out in the dessert lasting all night, it means going to the dunes and showing them who is boss. Fall brings trees that please my every sense. Snow storms, hot chocolate and piles of wood for the fire place accompany winter. Spring is unlimited pecan pies and chili peppers. Being able to go to my grandmas’ room and listen to “Sabado Gigante” with her was one of the most meaningful things. I might use the internet on a daily basis; spend some Sundays playing video games with my brother and I love my reality TV but I feel more at peace with the world when I’m in Las Cruses. I’m not worrying about what kind of deals or offers I’m getting by email or how long it’s going to take me to prestige again. Just give me a desert, and I’ll be blithely happy.