For the past two weeks, I've had the opportunity to take care of my own plant after years of failing. Part of me told myself to never adopt a plant because when I was younger, I would accidentally kill plants by pouring soap water in the soil to give them baths and whatnot. I'd never wanted to harm any of them, but because I didn't seem to have the magical touch, I prevented myself from getting a plant.

But as I passed by the succulent section at Home Depot a few weeks ago, I couldn't help but decide that it was finally time to see if I was able to take care of a living plant. I have to admit, the first few days were pretty nerve-wracking because I spent a lot of time worrying if I had given it enough sunlight or if I was following a good watering schedule. Thankfully, there were actually a lot of people with the same concerns online, so I had a clear vision for how I wanted to take care of the little succulent.

I then took to my social media to ask others what I should name my plant, and it came down to four choices: Dave, Carl, Lucy and Drake. After waiting a few hours for the majority vote to come in, the name had been decided, and the plant was named Dave.

I spend a lot of time around my desk just working, being on my phone or watching TV, but I felt that the best place to put Dave would be on my desk right underneath my lamp. That way, I'd be able to take care of it as I was going about my own day, and I'd have a little bit of décor to complement my otherwise-boring work area.

The toughest part of it all was watering the plant according to schedule because succulents are known for their ability to hold onto water long enough to last through droughts and long periods of time in general. I didn't know how often Dave had been watered before I had come along, so I figured watering it once a week as stated in the directions wouldn't harm it.

I watched carefully to make sure the leaves weren't changing color and texture according to how much water the plant had. Yellow and wrinkly meant the succulent did not have enough water, and mushy and black spots meant it was overwatered. There were a few black spots when I first brought the succulent home, but they eventually stopped showing up after a few days without water. A week later, the leaves weren't yellow and didn't gain any more spots, so I knew that a weekly watering schedule was perfect.

I really figured that I got the hang of the whole taking-care-of-a-plant gig, but there wasn't much evidence that I was succeeding besides the fact that Dave wasn't dying. Fortunately, a week after I bought it, I measured its height, and it had grown a centimeter to become six centimeters tall.

Now I know that this isn't anything major because plants are constantly growing, but for someone who was notorious for killing plants, this meant that I was really doing a good job! And I knew that no matter how much or little work it took to take care of a plant, the end result of watching it grow was worth it.