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When You Grow Up
The teacher stood in front of the class,
“I give this same assignment every year!”
“Please write what you want to be when you grow up...
and remember:
there’s no wrong answer here.”
The answers were predictable
doctor, fireman, astronaut...
Super hero, secret agent,
owner of a yacht.
The teacher read with interest
as their grammar she corrected
until she came across one paper
with an answer unexpected.
It was written by a shy little girl
who didn’t want a super power.
When I grow up, she wrote in capital letters,
I want to be a wild flower.
Because bringing beauty to the world
is a flower’s livelihood
and I want to grow in places
no one ever thought I would.
‘You already bring beauty to my world’, the teacher wrote
‘And I know you’ll find a way...
to grow anywhere you want to.”
and she graded it an A.
