Im addicted to sleep
And the absence of pain
The smell of the Earth
And the sound of the rain

We all are like plants I think
We start out small
And with a little bit of help
From our best people
We begin to grow
Sometimes we begin to wilt
And our loved ones
Help us to move on
And stay healthy
And continue to bloom

When you take a cutting
That plant is now living
With someone else
And has another life
This happens with people
When we give ourselves away
Our time and energy and love
To our friends and family
Our lives are now
Intertwined with theirs

Sometimes we get sad
And lose our leaves
When seasons change
And people change
But we learn to grow
Flower buds in the spring

Some plants grow well with others
And other plants are just weeds
The people we choose
To spend time with
Reflect the good plants
For one would not purposely
Fill their life with weeds
But even in gardens
Weeds aren’t planted
But they still show up
And block out the sun
So we must cut the weeds
Out of our lives

If you are not planted
In the right type of soil
You will not sprout
How you were meant to
But rather by
The dirt’s design
But if you allow yourself
To choose the right ground
You will blossom into
The best version of yourself

Water your plant
With content that will
Encourage your plant
To grow and develop
To its own best interest
Rather than content
That will slow down
Your progress

We must  be kind
To one another because
If we spend our time
Keeping other plants in the shade
We will grow the wrong way
We are all trying to create
A beautiful garden
Together

The teacher strike has been going on for 5 days. We can’t keep school out any longer without extra summer days. Mary Fallin has funded each student half a textbook and said teachers are asking for too much “like teenagers wanting a better car”. In this essay I will...