In the sweltering summer of 1999, I sat in my backyard in Fort Smith, reading Sharon Creech's "Bloomability." I shielded my eyes from the sun and imagined snow-capped mountains, glacial waterfalls, and impossible greens in place of the dead grass in my backyard. Switzerland took root in my imagination, and in my sixth-grade graduation essay, I wrote, "In 25 years, I will live in a valley in Switzerland ..."

Switzerland looked almost exactly as I had imagined when I finally visited in August 2013: foggy, rainy, and cold, with glaciers, wispy clouds lingering along the hillsides, and waterfalls threading their way down the slopes. In the one photo I have of myself there that summer, I am wearing a jacket.

Now I finally live in a Swiss valley, so I spent my seven-week summer tracing the Switzerland of "Bloomability," chasing its mountains, lakes, and waterfalls from........

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