As a society, we define innocence as the state of being free from sin or moral wrong, but how do we know when this state of being ends? There isn’t a road map to life. We envision milestones as we celebrate birthdays and make friends and fall in love while navigating through our lives. Then at some point we are told that we will lose the simplest thing about us, our innocence, but I don’t think it disappears all together.

When I was a little girl, every time I had a crush on a boy in my class, I would waltz on into my back yard after school and pick what I deemed to be the most beautiful flower to ever grow because I was sure that it would give me the answer I was searching for. Then I would proceed to pluck away every petal as I sang along to the whistling of the winds in order to discover the fate of my love.

This is what I imagine happens to our innocence as we grow. We make choices. Not all of them are good or sensible, but they still play a role in the life of the flower of our innocence that grows in the most hidden place of our souls. Our petals fall as we grow and learn who we are and discover our voices in the world. One might say that the loss of this flower is inevitable and leads to the wonders of adulthood, but I say we can never truly lose it all because sometimes we just need the view of our inner child to point us in a direction of naïve hope and simple happiness. This is why I will forever hold onto the last petal that seals my fate, and leaves a little bit of the girl that sang as she plucked and believed in love.