Sunflower Power

s e r a h
s e r a h
Sep 4, 2018 · 5 min read

This might not be the greatest of comebacks, but I hope the pictures will make up for the cheesy (yet true) writting that is coming a continuación:

There are many factors to keep in mind in this story, and I’ll list them before I begin.

  1. I was alone this past weekend. My brother had moved out of our BnB and my friends that live here went on a roadtrip and were going to be back on Monday.
  2. I came to this country excruciatingly tired and stressed out of my mind, only hoping that this little getaway could restore me somehow.
  3. I was really looking forward to this trip, to be able to rest, reflect on myself, and to take pictures to raise the quality of my content on social media.
  4. I love sunflowers.

Having all of these elements in mind, I will tell you the story of how I ended up somewhere in British Columbia at a sunflower festival.

I was readjusting on the fact that I was by myself, with my brother a city away from me, and my friends a little further away from me and my brother together. I was a little intimidated by this thought because I was at a city I didn’t even know. I was talking to one of my friends about this and he gave me the greatest tip (uno que en teoría ya sabia, pero por el hecho de que entre modo #BlockedSerah, me fue difícil llegar a esta idea): “Why don’t you go on Instagram and hashtag the name of the city and see what pictures come up that get your attention, you’ll find something to do in no time.” I did exactly that, and once I started to go through pictures of activities that were more towards the capital and not in the area I was in I started to think that maybe I should just stay in my room and do things on my computer.

Until I saw it. Fields of sunflowers were calling my name.

I decided to look into the profile, and picture after picture captivated my heart. I checked the distance and it was only a few minutes away! All of a sudden, fear started to crawl in and I started thinking: “What if there is ni way for me to come back to the place I’m staying?”, “Okay, so I take the pictures, but who’s going to take pictures of me? Will I like them? Do I look good enough to pose for pictures with sunflowers? I bet there will be a lot more girls that will look a lot better than me that will have far better portrait pictures than me.”, “What will people think if they see me by myself with my camera walking around the fields? Won’t I look a little creepy?”

Sara, stop. No podes ser así de insegura, Deos mío.

My two inner Sara’s continued discussing whether I should go or not, but it was as if my body had already decided for me and started getting ready to go. Once I realized what I was doing, #AdventurousSerah started getting excited and started to think of all the things I was going to take, the clothes I was going to wear, and above everything else, wonder if it would reach my expectations.

This is te first thing you see when you go and buy your tickets.

I can’t begin to explain how this experience made my expectations seem insignificant, because it was so much more than what I was expecting.

I got there and decided to do a fast first scan before I started with my pictures, to be able to get a feel of how things worked there, how other tourists managed their priorities according to the zones they visited, and the movement of the sunflowers to be able to capture their essence in the best way possible. I decided that I would do the pictures as fast as I could so that I let go of my phone and camera in order to truly take in where I was and what I was doing.

The sight was breathtaking. There were acres of different types of sunflowers of different shapes and sizes, all beautiful in their own way. There were traditional sunflowers, little sunflowers, tall, short, pale, dark. There were even sunflowers that grew taller than me and the flower itself was bigger than my head or my hand (and my hands are pretty big). It was so beautiful to see so many friends and family come together to enjoy such a moment together on a bright Sunday afternoon.

This experience, keeping in mind that this is a big-league-bucket-list-dream-activity for me, has truly helped me restore my view on the nature of beauty; beauty in others and beauty found in myself. It has made me be able to press that reset button on my picture-taking, that I had thought had been creatively stuck for a couple of months now. I’ve relearned to be able to be comfortable in my solitude, in my own skin, and in my point of view.

It’s been a couple of months since my last solo-adventure, and I know today that there is so much more left to discover in these types of experiences. This is something I will be doing more often, not just because of the adventure that will be taken place, but to constantly remind me that I am strong, beautiful, courageous, and independent.

I stand fearlessly, proudly, and beautifully.

Just like a sunflower towards sunshine.

    s e r a h

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    s e r a h

    The Awkward Journey into Adulthood

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