Submitted by Denison University student Ben Tran
Spring is here with a diamond blue sky, lavish trees and cherry blossoms. Shorts and skirts instead of pants and hoodies. As humans celebrate Ohio spring, plants are undertaking a lifetime quest: fertilization. Thousands of enlarged molecules splash against the windows as gusts swirl them into the air. Small, but plenty. They originate from the blooming flowers of spring, cradling millions of pollen grains inside each extra-tiny rucksack, ready to spread as far as the jungles of rural Ohio.
I wonder how far they’ll go. I’m curious. The metamorphosis of earth creatures has always been fascinating. They embody stories of adaptation and maintenance of breeds. Just like how tadpoles and caterpillars are bred en masse, the fertilization quest is not for everyone. Undertaken by thousands, pulled through by a handful.
The chosen few will grow, from birth to babyhood, through awkward puberty and midlife crises, into the quiet dignity of old age. If an old tree could speak, it would tell a life-long story of floating along the winds, striving against piercing winters and blooming once per year only to carry on its bloodline.
The oldies were all tiny particles. A thousand quests for a handful of triumphs. Everybody starts somewhere.
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