I recently came across this poem that I wrote in high school for a creative writing class. It feels especially relevant. To anyone who is meant to feel as if they don't belong in this world: resist, persist, and don't let them knock you down.

I sprouted in this garden
unknown to the soaring eagles and the wise oaks.
I was a thorn among the beauties.

But ferocious winds and icy drops
destroyed their delicate petals and uprooted them, out.
I remained. I resisted. I persisted.

They wanted me to vanish
Not only from sight, but from everywhere.
They wanted my roots.
Everything that held me together, ripped from the soil.

And they tried.
They tore off the leaves I spent so much time
getting just right.
They twisted my stem, my core.
But I wouldn’t let them touch my roots.

And as long as my roots were planted in the garden
so was I.

One day
They stopped pulling.
They always do.
They always will.

Because as they tried to knock me down
My roots were spreading.
I became stronger than they ever imagined.

Maybe I wasn’t part of your blueprint,
but I took root.
Maybe to you I wasn’t beautiful,
but I still blossomed.
Maybe I had no purpose in your eyes,
but I made one.

To you, I am a weed. But I'm part of the garden.
And I’m not going away.