Why I'm Proud That My Illness Makes Me a Weed, Not a Flower

Close your eyes and picture this: your favorite flower. Where is the flower growing? What color is the flower?

Now picture this: a weed. Where is the weed growing? What does the weed look like?

 

I bet your picture for the flower was different from the picture of the weed, and that’s to be expected. They are two different types of plants. In the same way, there are two different types of people.

I originally got the idea from Karen Rivers’ book called “Love, Ish.”

People who grow up with little difficulty or struggle are like the flowers. They are well-watered, have good soil and are pretty and fragile because they can be. Life hasn’t toughened them up yet.

Then there are the weeds, like me. The weeds are the ones who have faced hardship for a while and don’t have the good soil. Unlike flowers, us weeds are stubborn because we’ve had to grow where we land and take what we can because that’s how we have learned to live.

The weeds are not as colorful as the flowers, nor as pretty to look at, but they are still plants, same as the flowers. In my case, I am a weed because I had some health issues and have had to claw and fight my way to a diagnosis.

To many doctors, I am the weed that keeps growing after they continue to pluck it, stubborn and unrelenting. But that’s how weeds have to be, lest gardeners (or in this case doctors) pluck them out with little thought because they make the garden less beautiful.

Well, us weeds do not make the garden less beautiful. We add diversity, and if you look hard enough, you may be able to learn something from us. After all, I just wrote a whole article based on weeds, and I’m proud to be one!

We want to hear your story. Become a Mighty contributor here.

Thinkstock photo via D-HAYASAKA/amanaimagesRF.