A little over a year ago I was at the lowest point of my life: I was depressed, crying every day, and felt like I had no hope. On one specific day in which I was feeling especially down, my mom asked me if I wanted to help her plant the new plants that she had just bought.

I agreed, mostly because I was willing to do anything to get my mind off of the pain that I was feeling inside. So, I went outside in the hot summer heat and I helped her with the gardening.

There came a point where I helped her plant a beautiful pink rose bush in our backyard.

I looked at the vibrant pink petals and then up at my mom and I told her how beautiful I thought it was. She then looked back at me and nodded in agreement. Then she told me that I was like the rose bush and I would be bright and vibrant too one day after I got through everything I was going through.

I told her that that was very cheesy but it still stuck with me.

Every day throughout the summer the rose bush grew bigger and its petals became more vibrant. And with each day as it grew bigger, I became better. I slowly started to feel like my normal self again and I was coming out from the darkness that had swallowed me for so long.

Then, I went to college and like the rose bush, I grew stronger and better.

Though, in December I found out that my boyfriend had cheated on me and I was a mess. Almost as worse at I was the summer before. And sure enough, when I went home and rose bush had died. All of its petals were crumbled on the floor and it wilted over. The rose bush no longer was bright and strong, it was brown and withered.

I began to cry because I remembered my mom's silly analogy of the rose bush and me. It made me realize that we both were dying - mine was just more internal, rather than externally like the rose bush.

And then the winter passed and after a lot of hard work on my self, I grew happier and better. I worked hard on loving my self and focusing on what made me happy. Similar to how the rose bush needed sunshine and water, I needed good friends and family.

With my support system and after doing a lot of doing things focusing on myself, I found myself being better than I had ever been before.

As I went home from school one day, I saw that same rose bush again: it was not dry and brittle like it had been before, this time it was once again lively and beautiful. Its pink petals were even bigger and now the bush stood the highest that it ever had.

I looked at it and smiled because I realized that as cheesy as it was, maybe the rose bush and I were similar. We both came out from harsh times and we were now thriving.

I asked my mother how it was still even alive after it died and she told me that it never died, it just lost its leaves and petals from the summer due to the cold. It was never really dead, just a little broken.

As childish as the analogy seems, it means a lot to me. To me, it signifies my self-growth and the hard work that it took for me to become the happy person I am today. And like the rose bush, I still have times when I get broken and need time to flourish again, but I will always bounce back.