Tree

A Pretty Tree (over the rainbow)

Is a hero someone who can fly and save people from burning buildings? Someone who has overcome an impossible obstacle? Or is it someone who sacrifices everything for the right thing? The hero I have chosen is something we overlook and sometimes take for granted. My heroes are the trees we see everyday, but never look up at.

Trees have been around for a long time. They can live up to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. Roots, trunks, branches, twigs, and leaves are the basic parts of the tree. The roots provide support because they are mostly residing in the soil and help pull up water and nutrients for it to grow. Trees get their energy from the sun. The trunk is the base of the tree where water and nutrients travel through to the branches and leaves.

A bird comes and lands on a tall beautiful Coastal Redwood tree, and builds her home. After laying her eggs, she sits on them and waits for them to hatch. The bird never expects a storm to approach. The rain pours down. The terrible, thrashing thunder crashes. The lighting flashes fluorescently with the intensity of habaneras getting stuck in your throat. The tree's branches wave back and forth, but the tree does not topple over. The storm lasts three days, and by then the bird is close to death. But the bird survives, and when spring arrives, two baby birds hatch from the eggs.

These trees provide us with life. I believe they are heroes because they give us food, oxygen, and a good friend. Food such as oranges, apples, pears, lemons, and tangerines are all delicious foods we eat daily. Not only do these foods fill our stomachs, but they also provide us with vitamins we need to carry on a healthy life. In the morning I go and walk to school while my sister goes by car. I notice how I love the smell of the air in the morning. It is more of a feeling than a smell. It is the best feeling in the entire world. The trees are also great friends as well. Think I am crazy? Well, trees tend not to judge you and are great listeners. They are who I fall back on when I have no one to trust. They do not speak to us the way we communicate. They speak with gestures and signs which might be hard to see at first, but if we take the time it becomes obvious. They teach us that life is like them. Starting from the bottom and growing upwards. I believe every tree is trying to reach all the way to the sun. Trees try hard, and there is no doubt in my mind that one day a tree might accomplish it.

They are not just heroes because of what they provide for me. They are heroes because of the sacrifices they make. All the work and energy a tree does and uses to make one fruit, the same fruit we refuse to eat and throw on the floor. Trees face hardships during the gruesome weathers. Trees are cut up and used to build houses to shelter us and keep us warm. Not just us, they provide homes for other animals also. I believe the life of a tree is just as important as the life of a human, maybe even more. My definition of a hero is someone who brings out the best in us and someone who helps and protects us, someone we look up to and who passes down wisdom to us. A tree does just that.