Plants and Middles.

There are always ideas jingling around in my heart, forever stuck in a state that can only be classified as “falling Jenga.” I drink probably far more coffee than I should and am content to jump at the chance for a scone.

I expected exhaustion senior year. I didn’t expect the general sense of chaos, nor finding myself precariously seated on what feels like a sofa of uncertainty.

And while I balance on this sofa stained with belly laughs and drawn-out drama, I consider how people are like plants.

Some people sink their roots deep into a place. Gnawing into buildings, reaching the depths of ancient underground rivers, until one day, they’re irrevocably bound to that place. Like the white oak tree, they'll grow a foot or two a year, yet their deep taproot system allows them to endure extreme droughts.

Other people might network their little hearts out and spread roots across the country to connect with others. Like great big sequoia trees, opting for a wide network of interlacing, shallow roots to attain maturity.

I myself feel like a seed, subject to the whim of the wind. Currently the wind is blowing me towards Chicago, but we'll see; the wind is fickle and particularly inclined to change its mind. I'm not sure if I'll end up being a white oak tree or a sequoia tree.

As I and my peers graduate college, people are slowly siphoning off into groups of essentially staying and leaving. Deep roots and wide roots, white oaks and sequoias.

We must remember that all growth comes from a root system, from community, whether or not that community is shallow or wide. Connecting with others is one of the fundamental characteristics of being human; it makes life vibrant, healthy, and fruitful. Some seasons of life have a multitude of wide connections, and other seasons contain a couple of long-term connections. While different, they both lead to growth.

The world is wide, with places to visit, people to meet, scones to eat, songs to listen to, sunrises sigh over. One way of doing life is not necessarily the only way to do life. One manner of growth is not the only successful path to a mature adult life.

words by Morgan Anderson and photo by Abby Melrose