I believe that people are like flowers.  I believe in the many needs of both people and flowers, and they can all relate.

To most people, family would mean a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household. However, this is not my definition.  Family has always been a tough subject for me. It’s hard knowing that my mom used to live with two kids by herself, and moved away from our home.  It’s even harder knowing that my dad could’ve been there with her. Instead, he chose to stay where he was to live with the girl of his dreams. He left my mom to raise my brother and me on her own.  It could’ve even been my mother who had chosen to leave, and, if it was her, at least she had us in mind. Family to me includes having a father can actually be a father. Family is when your mother is actually able to feed her children, and not just by herself.  It means that two parents can keep promises and always make sure their kids are happy, otherwise, what is the purpose of having children around at all?

I believe that people are similar to flowers.  Most people want to be big and beautiful, just like a sunflower. They want those vibrant yellows, and to be noticed and live to their full potential.  As I was growing up, I knew about my dad. I knew he loved me, but I was still too young to understand why he lived so far away. I was too young to think about being angry.  I still saw him, and my parents worked hard to buy us plane tickets to see him every year. When I was with my mom, our house felt empty. The hallways echoed with just the sound of a small electric fan.  You could hear the muffled sound of laughing from the kitchen, my brother and I playing together in our bedroom. This laughter blocked out the sound of my mother softly crying. Why was she never good enough?  When will somebody love her as much as she ever loved her children? And, she did love them. She loved her daughter’s warm, golden threads of hair, and her blue eyes that dazzled like sapphires. She loved the way her son’s chestnut hair curled on the back of his neck. He had the biggest heart, and his imagination had always distracted him.  They loved each other. Perhaps they could be a family. Flowers need sunlight and water.  Otherwise, they die. What about the children?  They need a family. Their sunlight always being guidance from the people who made a promise to be in their lives; those people being their parents.  Children need parents to become the best they can be.  But, what happens to a flower that grows without sunlight, or only half of what they need? It is just like a child having one parent. Growing is harder for that child.  One parent alone can barely support their son or daughter. How could a flower grow if it did not have what was necessary? They are forced to live like orchids. Wishing they had that extra fertilizer, but instead, they must take it all in from the air.  They wish the air could instead be extra sunlight or just one more drop of water.

Water is something that flowers need and long for.  To me, water is an influence. Dirty, rusty water corrupts the flower.  It clogs its pores and this plant, who has the potential to be beautiful, becomes ugly and discolored.  Without a positive influence, a person will take after their father who left. They will be afraid to love and be part of a family.  Maybe their heart becomes ugly and discolored, and how does one recover from this? How do they put color and beauty back into their heart, when all they’ve ever known is rusty water?

Flowers have certain needs to live.  Children do too. They need parents and a positive influence to reach their full potential and become that beautiful flower.  To this day, I am lucky enough to have even half of that sunlight. I am lucky to have water that can make my heart pure again.  My mother no longer cries as she has now found another source of sunshine. That shine is a new father figure to my brother and me, and now we can be flowers instead of weeds.  My biological father is a dim source of sunlight. I can be angry at him now that I’m old enough to understand. I know that I could’ve been getting that sunlight because he chose not to be here.  I very well could’ve been getting water from a spring instead of a sewer. Now, I know what flowers need, I know what people need, and I believe that people are just like flowers.