Outside my window one spring, the first Spring in our new house, I noticed that the flower bushes in our backyard were in bloom. There were seven bushes, but only six were in bloom. The ones in bloom had yellow flowers. There were three bushes to the left, three to the right, and one bush in the middle. The one in the middle was the one that wasn’t in bloom. At that moment, I decided that I was the bush in the middle. The one that didn’t bloom. The next morning, I wrapped a fake flower around one of its branches. I figured that since it was me, it might as well fake being beautiful just like I do.
Three months later, I was packing my suitcase to visit my dad for the summer. I went over to my window to turn on the fan, when I noticed something different in the backyard. I ran outside barefoot to make sure that what I thought was right. The bushes that bloomed were no longer in bloom, and all the yellow flowers were dead. The bush in the middle, the one that didn’t bloom, was now in bloom with the most beautiful, bright pink flowers. I walked over to it and unwrapped the fake flower.
“You don’t need to be fake anymore,” I said. “You’re beautiful.” And it was. Then I realized something. Maybe everyone has beauty in them somewhere, but maybe…. Just maybe… It’s not their time to bloom. Someday, somehow, they will. And they’ll be the most beautiful thing. So, maybe I’ll be beautiful too.