I explained the story behind this flower in my book. I waited 7 years to see another rose on the side of my grandparents’ home. I honestly didn’t think flowers were gonna grow there anymore. Seeing this rose was a reminder for me to never give up on my hopes and dreams; it reminded me of Tupac Shakur’s poem, The Rose That Grew from Concrete. I know this rose didn’t literally grow from concrete, but I feel like it fought extremely hard to reach the sun, just like I fought extremely hard to recover from the injuries sustained in my car accidents, to graduate college, to pass my LCSW exam, and to share my passion with the world.
Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk with out having feet. Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared.
- Tupac Shakur
“Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air”. These lines are even more meaningful now than they were when this picture was taken in 2019. Back then, I correlated those lines with my recovery from my car accidents and my persistence to finish undergrad and graduate school. Currently, I’m correlating those lines with my dedication to growing professionally as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and working on my business, Nurtured by Nature Photography. My mind is continuously thinking about mental health, promoting my book, writing my blog, and selling my nature pictures. In addition to sharing my passion with the world, NbN allows me to work on healing my inner child by blogging about my emotions and repressed traumas, and it helps me maintain mental wellness by working on something I love daily. By keeping my dreams, I’m learning to breathe fresh air again.
“Long live the rose that grew from concrete / when no one else ever cared”. I correlate these lines with the flower because I feel like the rose popped up like “yeah, y’all counted me out but here I am”. Seeing the rose appear made me so happy because I didn’t think they would grow in that spot anymore. I correlate these same lines with my life. More often than not, I feel alone with my thoughts and I doubt myself in regards to achieving my goals; I’ve always been that way. Each time I’ve overcome an obstacle in my life I felt was impossible, I remind myself “yeah, y’all counted me out but here I am”.
So, when I saw this beautiful rose so confidently shining on that warm spring day at my grandparents’ home, I knew it was God reminding me to keep going, no matter how difficult the journey or how long the journey takes. And today, after blogging about how I apply this lesson to my life, I’m given that same reminder and more motivation to stay persistent with working on my business and growing professionally in my field.
While I feel like the rose was God reminding me to just keep going, I'd be remiss to not mention my mom's impact on my "just keep going" mentality. I've discussed mom's "logic over emotion" mindset a lot. While sometimes it bothers me, other times I love that she's wired that way. Mom loves reminding me tough times are gonna happen, but I gotta keep going. Mom will listen to me vent and instead of coddling me and then giving the honest truth, she gives the honest truth and then tries to coddle me. Lol. I know she only does it so she won't sound completely heartless when she's talking to me. But she's always right. Coddling won't change whatever I'm dealing with, nor will it make the task easier to accomplish; I just gotta keep going, so I do. That's my "smile for the camera, cry in the shower" mindset.
Life Lesson:
· Be persistent in life, keep going despite any setbacks.
How I Apply it to My Life:
· I just keep going.
Song:
· Tupac Shakur – The Rose That Grew from Concrete ft. Nikki Giovanni (listen here)
SLIDESHOW: Roses.