Flower Among The Trees

EPILOGUE

Paint, paint, paint, and done.

"Finally," I said to myself, sighing. I was finally done with my painting that I have spent three full days on. Well, nobody told me painting was going to be easy, but in my defense, I love it, I love it with all my heart, just being able to paint and sketch out stuff that bothers me and are stuck in my head is a gift I will never take for granted.

I smiled as I looked at the beautiful big canvas, trees, and bushes everywhere, every shade of green was on them, painted on beautifully. And then, of course, the flower, the little lonely flower hidden between the trees, just slightly peeking out with its gorgeous light purple color, standing out from the shades of green. This painting was like a metaphor my mother told me when I was young.

"Now honey, when you grow up, there is going to be something called beauty standards among your friends, and that means that everyone will want to look alike, and you know why? Because people believe that if you're different, you're weird, and nobody wants to be weird. But the truth is, being different doesn't make you weird, it makes you special. I want you to think of it as a forest, and in this forest, every tree looks the same and is the same height, because one tree is scared to grow more and be different from the other trees and plant, but there is one flower in the forest who is not afraid to be different, it glows and glows like it has no care in the world, and it is a million times more pretty than the other trees and plants, just because it was brave enough to be different. So baby, when you get older, don't be a tree, be that flower."

After she told me that, I never stopped being a flower among the trees. Sure, I did sometimes get made fun of for being different when I was young, but that didn't matter, I still wanted to be different. And now, I'm a girl trying to pursue my dream as a painter in the big old NYC, and I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do this if I wasn't a flower.