<center>**UP Diliman Sunflower**</center>
It's again that time of the year when you would be able to see rows of sunflowers blooming lining up the UP Avenue.
**The UP sunflower story....**
Sunflowers, an icon of UP Diliman, has been an integral part of the UP graduation for decades. The sunflowers are planted in time for the graduation season and the summer. The sunflowers, depicting the sun, symbolizes the hopes and the dreams of the graduating students. Four years ago, when the schedule of the graduation was moved from April to June making the blooming of the sunflowers in time for the graduation seem impossible, them being summer flowers, the people behind the school's maintenance found a way to still make it happen. They added dwarf varieties into their existing ones to make the sunflowers withstand the start of the rainy season and make it in time for the graduation. That way, the UP Diliman was able to retain their tradition, making the sunflowers a parting gift to their graduates.
**My sunflower story...**
A year ago, I was introduced to these beautiful UP sunflowers by my partner. Back then, I was pregnant with our daughter. Sometime in June last year, we had our "do-it-yourself" photoshoot with these sunflowers (we were supposed to have our check-up with our doctor but she was not available on that day). It never came across our mind that the photos we took that day would be the last photos of me being pregnant; *our daughter made a surprise entrance into the world 2 days after that*. It really took us by surprise because I was not about to give birth until the next month.
Now a year after that surprising and overwhelming event, the sunflowers are again in bloom. As my partner suggested that we take a look at the sunflowers in bloom (now with our daughter), we also thought about doing the poses I did last year and compare. Hmmm. *Why not right?*
So here are the photos we managed to compile:
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**June 2017**
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**June 2018**
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A lot of things happened in just a matter of one year. In that span of time, I went from being pregnant into a mom who struggled with breastfeeding to a mom who is now planning the baptism and first year birthday celebration of her daughter. The sunflowers may be a symbol of hope to the graduates, but for me, they are a symbol of a new beginning...of a beautiful start. I should know, because in that same week they were in bloom, I received my greatest gift of all...my daughter. ❤
*Thank you for taking the time to read. I hope you enjoyed my sunflower story. What about you? Care to share your own sunflower (or any flower) story?*
Thank you for dropping by. ❤
All the best! {always}
~ filnette 🍀
PS
I would have shared a lot more photos for comparison but looking at my files now, the four 2017 photos up there are already the best ones, or rather, the less worse ones.lol
