In 2008 I went to a weekend workshop on digital story-telling in Washington, DC. We were learning how to tell a story about something important in our lives using mixed media. I knew that I wanted to create a narrative about my time at Hagan, one of my most influential life events. This 4-minute video, entitled “A Love Poem to the River,” is my beginning attempt in trying to describe my love for the Delaware River. I had so many magical experiences during my 10 years at Hagan. It was hard to choose what to focus on. But when I was 16 and a CIT, I had a 15 minute “moment” by the river that I will never forget. One evening after dinner I went to find a spot to have a few minutes of alone time. No one was by the waterfront, so I climbed down the steps for a quiet retreat before evening activities began. The summer sun was beginning to set, and it was that magic time, “le crepuscule,” where the light becomes luminous. The river was so still and beautiful. I was just sitting in front of the buddy board looking out, lost in my own world. As I glanced across the river, I saw a doe and her fawn by the river’s edge. The three of us just looked at each other, deeply connected to the moment. We all seemed so completely content and at peace. Later that year, I read Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, a right of passage for young people in the 60’s. You may remember that at the end of the book, Siddhartha wanders until he finds a river and seeks out a ferryman he had met, a spiritual teacher, if you will. Essentially, the ferryman tells Siddhartha that he should listen to the river to ease his feelings of pain and loss and to find the truth. These two events, the doe and her fawn at Hagan’s river, and then later that year reading Siddhartha, made their mark deep inside me and forever sealed my love for our river. (I included a DVD of the digital story in the Hagan Time Capsule.)