I get off the yellow bus with my classmates who are all seniors and take a deep breath of the fresh morning air. It was a perfect morning to being going out and writing about nature for our college english class. The forest calms me inside. I walk down a trail to my right. The wind calls me and leads me farther into the forest. I look to my left and see a swamp, look to my right and see a bundle of tall trees. I take out my blanket that is the size of a king bed and lay it on an old fallen tree. I stare into the distance.

Beauty is in every inch of the forest. Among its imperfections, it still has beauty. A tall orange leaved tree is right in front of me, glistening in the sunshine. Nothing is perfect. Things may be beautiful but no animal, object or person is a hundred percent perfect.

Through middle school and high school I have always been so worried about what my hair looks like. I use to see what everyone was wearing and how they were doing their hair. I cared how I looked to everyone at school. I would put on makeup because everyone else was. I would do that all just because that's how much I worried about impressing other people. I would always second guess myself in the morning when I was choosing what to wear. Saying to myself “ Would they like me more if I wore this” “ Would they notice me more if I did this to my hair?”

Bam! I see the most perfect orange tree in front of me.

The wind is blowing through my hair. The cold breeze sends shivers throughout my entire body. As I venture down the trails, droplets fall onto my sweatshirt. I see trees with no leaves and some with leaves. The leaves are sunset colored airplanes in the sky. The perfect orange leaved tree sways back and forth as the wind slowly moves it in any direction it wants to. Birds chirp away but are nowhere to be seen. The wet, discolored grass on the trail has been flattened, like it has been walked on a million times. Beauty surrounds me.

The beauty of the orange tree draws me in. The leaves are a bright orange and yellow, with some branches that stick out farther than others. The dark brown, bumpy bark covered every inch of the tree. The wind blows knocking its leaves onto the ground scattering them all around. The closer I look at the tree, I can see how it isn't perfect even though it may look like it, it has broken branches and the bark is tearing apart. Flaws make things interesting.  I'm worried about making mistakes or how I even look, which shouldn’t matter at all. Everyone has beauty but it is what's on the inside that makes a person different than others.  You can have beauty on the outside, but you may not be perfect on the inside. Over the years, I have been trying to be perfect but it hasn't gotten me anywhere. I don't have the hair, skin or anything that I wish I had and I've finally realized that it's okay as long as I have beauty inside and out.

Everyone has their own beauty, but you can't be perfect all the time. It can be a person's smile, hair, eyes which are all outside appearances. There are other people that are funny, caring, kind which are only seen once you get to know them, so their beauty is hidden.  I want imperfect to be the new perfect. I always think of Hannah Montana's song “Nobody’s Perfect.” and how the lyrics in the song really speak to me.  Everyone has their flaws, and being imperfect is just human. Imperfections are the world's finest flaw. People make judgments from the outside and don't look deeper. Like how I was drawn to the beauty of the orange tree.

I look all around once again, no tree, leaf or piece of grass is perfect. I have realized that I myself spend too much time on my outside appearance and trying to be perfect instead of enjoying myself . I want to worry less about how others see me and what others think of me. I want to be my own perfect, even if that means not being able to be that one bright orange tree.

I am not perfect. You are not perfect. I know nothing that is perfect.

I have changed over the years. I no longer care so much on how I look and just be myself. I am fine with not following what is in this season just so I can be like everyone else. If I want to be like others then who I am. I have realized that i need to be myself. If someone wanted me to go buy this new purse I would be like no sorry, just cause they are buying it why do I need to? I can be my own beauty and perfect. I got no where worrying about what others thought of me, what people see on the outside is nothing compared to what I have inside me. That’s all that matters, what's on the inside.

Beauty is everywhere, to my left and to my right. From tall pine trees to mushrooms on the ground, to the sky to the roots of the earth there is beauty.  A bright orange and yellow ombre leaf falls in front of my face, I will always remember that tree, it made me look at the true beauty and that nothing is perfect.

My time is up, I approach the yellow school bus with my notebook in one hand and my pencil in another. I sit down on the yellow bus surround my classmates and look out the window  at forest one last time and we head back to the school