My Life as a Nomadic Plant

How I Belong to Both No Culture and Every One

In the biological world, tropisms are well-known phenomena in which an organism grows or moves in response to a stimulus. Botanists will tell you that this behavior is normally seen in plants, yet I have become most familiar with the concept within my personal life. As a child, stimuli pushed and pulled my family around the nation, from nearly picturesque suburbs of Orange County, California, to shockingly communal slums of Charlotte, North Carolina. I am a firm believer that these travels were instrumental in molding my core personality and beliefs. The exposure to many disparate cultures and the problems associated with them were essential in creating my nearly compulsive habit of viewing situations from a different perspective and shaped the person I am today.

The effects of these “tropisms” are immense. Culturally, I like to believe that I have become a microcosm of America, a melting pot of the different cultures I have experienced. That may be giving myself too much credit, but I have definitely carried parts of the different cultures with me as I have grown. California lived up to its reputation of being a fairly stress-free environment, and accordingly, it was there that I learned that one need not stress excessively about life. Eventually our lives tend to reach that point of homeostasis, if only for a moment. North Carolina was a challenge; where California lived up to its stereotypes, North Carolina actively eschewed them. This in itself was a lesson, reinforcing that old cliché about books and their covers. However, once beyond this shock, I found that these alleged slums were home to the most friends and communal people one can ask for, and it was within weeks that the neighborhood kids were visiting my mom daily with cookies. My time in North Carolina, as well as Florida, has taught me the true value of surrounding yourself with people who care for you, be it family or otherwise. The coterie formed in the International Baccalaureate program at my school has become virtually a second family to me, and without them I am not quite sure where I would be. While regulating stress is vital to success, having a reliable support system is twice as important to me.

Ideologically, spending time with people of such eclectic beliefs left me somewhat confused initially. The rooted plant never has to question the truths beyond its soil, while the dandelion has to learn to live wherever it falls. The more perspectives one views life through, the more one is forced to challenge their beliefs; what else are ideologies but a collage of the lessons one has derived from one’s experiences? Living so close to the Mexican border in California exposed me to the problem of illegal immigration and the detrimental effects it might have on American residents, yet my time in Florida has illuminated the plight of many Hispanic countries and the people’s ultimatum of staying in a country of corruption and poverty or seeking opportunity in America. The grey area that formed was initially terrifying, yet I have come to find it liberating. I no longer need to worry which side preaches the “truth,” as I now know there is often no such thing.

Truly, I cannot think of any one event that has shaped me as significantly as these treks over the country. They have made me sturdier, yet also more open to change. Perhaps most importantly, that possible contradiction does not bother me; I have learned that life is naturally dichotomous, and the validity of one truth does not negate its inverse. Without knowing this, and without the tropisms that caused this realization, I can say with all certainty that I would not have grown in the direction that I did. I cannot say where I would be without these experiences, and yet I know that I would be missing out on truly great knowledge and perspectives.