Union County Plant A Seed Blog

Roselle

Hope Still Springs Eternal

I have a student in my ESL program who has made leaps and bounds in the 1.5 years I’ve known him. A Haitian boy who has probably seen and experienced unpleasantries that would shock the rest of us. We would see each other every day, and he knew that I am involved in the garden at school. One day after lunch he comes to me with 3 seeds from his apple, so I said “Cool, let’s go put these in the dirt”. I didn’t think much of it until 2 weeks later when he came to me jumping up and down and dragged me outside to see that there was a 3” sapling coming out of the ground where we put the seed.

He was beyond excited, but somewhere along the way some mischievous fingers may have uprooted the young tree, and the first attempt was for naught. He was crushed. So, we tried again. It was June and school was almost over, so I gave him a planting pot with soil, he saved the apple seeds, and we planted them again, this time knowing that he was going to take the pot home and nourish the seeds and any saplings until September when I would see him again.

Fast Forward to September, and I was afraid to ask, not knowing how much help he had at home, and not wanting to put pressure on the subject. All this time we didn’t talk about it, until the beginning of November, he showed up with the pot, and there was a sapling growing there! Imagine my surprise! I call that a win. So now, the mission is to keep it alive all winter and plant it in front of the school in the Spring. You never know where and how the difference will be made. You never know how things will turn out, and in that I see a compelling argument for optimism.