Senior Lily Zorn cherishes the time she gets to spend at her cottage up north.
Her cabin is located in Pentwater, Michigan; she has been going there for around seven years. While at her cabin, Lily and her family go to the beach, have nightly bonfires, and play games. Although all of these things are super fun activities, the thing that Lily appreciates most is the time she gets to spend with her family.
Lily has a very tight relationship with her family—especially her siblings. She has four siblings, two older and two younger. Her oldest sister is named Maggie who is 21 and the second oldest sibling is Benji who is a sophomore at Ferris State. Her younger siblings are Eliza, who is 15, and Charlie, who is 13.
“We’ve always been really close,” Lily said. “Right now, we’re not together a lot because my older siblings are at college, but when they’re all home, we do like a lot of bowling [and] foaling. We go on trips together, play board games, [and] travel a lot. A lot of the times that I’m with them we’re going up north to my cottage.”
Going up to her cottage is very important to Lily because now that her two older siblings are in college, the main times she gets to see them is when they go up north. It was a big adjustment for Lily to get used to her two older siblings being away.
It has been a large adjustment for Lily because she grew up in a tight-knit family. When her siblings are home she makes sure to spend time with them as often as possible. She treasures the moments she gets to spend with them and embraces the moments when her family reconvenes; whether it is a sibling coming home during winter break, or weekends spent going to the movies, these occasions become opportunities to regather and strengthen bonds.
“I just always want them to be home,” Lily said. “It definitely was an adjustment [especially] growing up with a super close tight-knit family. It’s really hard to see them gone so often. My brother comes home most weekends with his girlfriend. We’ll go to art museums or go to the movies. It definitely is an adjustment not having them there every night, so we call a lot, which is really nice.”
Even though some of Lily’s siblings are away at college a key place they are able to spend time together is at their cottage. In Pentwater, her family is able to escape from distractions and really spend quality time together.
When Lily and her family go to their cottage no one spends much time on their phone. This allows for all of them to forge deeper bonds with one another. Since they are not spending much time on their devices, this creates a pathway to fun adventures with each other.
“I don’t think [our cottage] is the reason why we’re so close, but I think it’s a lot of our core memories are up there,” Lily said. “We have sandcastle contests each year. We’ll do all sorts of things at my cottage and it’s just a really great time because nobody’s really on their phone. It’s just so nice to disconnect. We’ll go to the school park up there [which is] a couple blocks away from our cottage. So we’ll walk there, and we’ll all play different games of like Survivor or that kind of thing, which is really nice.”
Lily treasures the deep connection she shares with her siblings. Even though her cottage is not the sole reason for their closeness, it serves as a place where memories can be made. Up north they can escape from distraction, have sandcastle contests, and even indulge in a homecoming—not a typical homecoming though. It is a celebration of everyone coming up north—there are fireworks, a parade, and fun activities. Despite life’s ups and downs, Lily is immensely grateful for the unwavering support and tight-knit bond she has with her family, providing her with a comforting refuge she can always return to.
“Overall, I’m very grateful to have such a tight-knit group of people in my life outside of school that we can come home [to], and no matter what has happened, we’re just really close,” Lily said. “ I am really grateful for that.”
