Someone once asked me, “If you could be any insect, what would you be?” I knew my answer right away:
If I could choose to be any insect, I would embody the most kind, community-minded, graceful, and conscious of all insects. I’d never bite. My sustenance would not be earned parasitically, but rather by preying on parasites. I’d approach humans only to balance on their frontal lobes as if to say, “Don’t over think. It’s the simple things in life that count.”
I’d want a supernatural body that is unfazed by gravity or raindrops. I’d want to spend my days zipping around lake skies at a breakneck pace, dancing out of shear joy. A smile would perpetually be renewed on my face. My dazzling, neon, green eyes would remain wide with wonder throughout my entire life.
I’d search forever, looking for others to join me in a sky dance. I’d especially want to find someone trustworthy enough to ride with me on a tandem adventure. My friends would buzz beside me and with my family behind me we’d journey peacefully all together in a harmonic chaos.
And even though my life would be short, I’d appreciate every minute. I’d take time to slow, to perch on a branch and gaze. Until one day my mortality would be revealed. My scaly wings would tear, preventing me from taking the air, but still I’d fight to get up and find my family again. And if there came a time when I knew the fight was done, I’d close my eyes in bliss and remember a life well lived.
The answer is clear. If I could be any insect, I’d be a Round Lake dragonfly.
by staffer Chelsea Lloyd
So here’s the thing….we have a group of guys who go out every year in May—to one certain lake. I cannot give away their private destination on the internet, but let’s just say that I hadn’t fished it before, and they always always catch fish. But mostly, they also catch fun, and they’re usually laughing so hard when they are telling their stories that it made me want to visit THAT lake. They call themselves The THAT (name changed to protect their secret) lake boys. 
So we paddled, we floated, and BAM, we both caught fish. Same time, first pass. They felt like snags, classic. So we reeled and we reeled and we reeled and we reeled, and the wind picked up in the meantime and we started floating into the rocks with our beautiful Escape, so I had to stop reeling and put the rod between my knees,and start to paddle. Monica kept reeling, and my rod started to bend until it was obvious that somehow our fish were wrapped around each other, or our lines, or….oh, the trickiness of it. Denali was very politely trying to stay in the middle of the boat but she did have to supervise every move, so there was also THAT challenge to stay steady.
