My entire life my dad has taught me to see past the way things look and to search for the beauty where it seems there is none. About a year ago, we were walking together on a sidewalk lined with roses; I pointed them out and he kicked the one closest to him, knocking all its petals onto the cement. I told him that he ruined it, that it had been beautiful, and he said it still was. I don’t know if he meant to slip a message, like he often does, into that moment. But it really stuck with me, and now I think of that rose as every person who has been judged and hurt because of the way they look. To most people, it’s just a rose with no petals-broken and ugly-when in reality, these people really are some of the most incredible, beautiful roses you will ever meet.
