Seasons of Change

Sarah Johnson, 6th Grade
Sequoia Middle School, Redding, CA
North State Region

Have you ever wondered how life goes on for a tree? Changing and growing with the seasons? Bursting with life and joy then wilting down into a frozen wooden sculpture? Now compare this to your average human life. See how we really aren't that different from this life of seasons.

Spring is a valuable time for trees. It is a time for them to learn and grow. You start out bare and thin from the cold winter frost, but then you start to straighten out and bloom. Your branches become thicker and stronger. Rain falls and you slurp it all up, gaining knowledge and wisdom. Buds start to sprout from your ever-growing limbs. The bare jumble of sticks and twigs that was then you is now a beautiful umbrella of colorful flowers, branching out to who knows where.

Summer comes along and your rainbow of blossoms soon become lush with thick green leaves from the rain you absorbed in those oh so precious days of spring. The leaves that have grown become an even bigger and thicker canopy of endless ideas and possibilities. You stand out from all the other trees in the world for your uniqueness and bright-spirited hard work. That precious rain of talents and knowledge has transformed you from a little weak twig to a colossal giant of strength and beauty, giving fruit and nuts to people all around you, helping them to thrive as well.

As fall soon becomes winter, your leaves begin to shrivel and fall. Your once bustling community is now thin and bare. Your tree bark grows black and weak, branches falling from the weight of ice and snow. But, although dark and old, your trunk supports you ever more, embracing you against the hurricane of the bleach-white blizzard. It stands tall and proud, a foundation of the past and what is to come of the future. You leave a mark on the small seeds you drop, preparing them for the delightfulness of the life that lay ahead of them. Your limbs may be shrunken and gone, but there you still stand, strong and ready to teach the next orchard of blooming seedlings.

Take a look at me. Look at what I can become. I may just be a skinny brown twig now, but I am ready to learn and blossom. Open the gateway for me and others. Be our rain. Be our rain of knowledge and our key to our endless possibilities. Teach us, let us grow. We will bloom and spring up to great achievements. So please, please save me a spot in college.