Sunflower, to everyone you are joyful, perfect, and strong; sitting gracefully in your garden, but what are you really like? With your brilliant yellow petals dancing in the wind, you are a symbol of happiness, but what if someone were to take a closer look? They might find the commonly overlooked dark center, the anxieties, even the occasional unhappiness. You keep you dark center to yourself, hiding it from others, burying it deep within your roots, underground, invisible to all. Your symmetrical petals the color of the warm August sun and your upright stature produces the image of perfection. However, the image of perfection doesn’t come without a price. To sustain perfection you struggle to obtain nutrients, strive to find sunlight, and plead for water. Your sturdy stem, never wavering, gives the impression of a plant they won’t soon see crumble. Even as the wind blows and the rain cascades upon you, threatening to rip your roots from the ground, you stay strong and hold yourself upright, but not without effort. What you truly wish to do is surrender, to let your yellow, petal filled head fall, to let your mind and body go limp, and to be happily at peace. But you can’t. You sit in your garden, you so called sanctuary, for everyone to look at, admire, and judge you. You are confined to your garden, held prisoner. There, in your garden you don’t just grow upward because the sun draws you in, you are trying to get off the ground, to reach up toward your dreams, and because it’s to only way to go.