The sprout

June 2023 was the first time the sprout and I crossed paths. Over the course of that hot, sticky summer the sprout and I grew close. We laughed, we cried, and I look back on that time fondly. 

Growing out of the “U” at the main entrance, the sprout represents everything Summit stands for, resilience, inclusion, and growth. To chop it down would be to chop down a strong role model for the youth. 

Even when times are tough, and winters are cold, the sprout persists. Just like Summit students, the sprout fights through adversity and challenges the expectations. 

The sapling grows in an unusual place. It gives students who feel isolated something to look up to. Summit claims to welcome diversity, which begs the question, why would we kill a staple of the Summit community because it is not human? We want inclusion, right? I say we welcome biodiversity into our school as well. 

One can’t help but pity the sprout. It’s all alone up in the sky, watching all the other trees grow and socialize while it’s stuck on a metal roof. The poor thing doesn’t even know where it came from or who its parents are. Was it blown up there during a storm? Was the wind whipping, the rain pouring? Did thunder rattle the ground and lightning illuminate the sky? Or was it an early morning in the middle of spring? Did a thoughtless bird carry the seed unknowingly trapping it, sentencing it to life of solitude and death by excavator. 

I think the sprout should be preserved. The world is full of things we can’t change, try as we might. Letting a small tree live is the least we, as a community, can do. You can’t help but empathize with the sprout. It was dealt a bad hand, planted in a bad spot. If a human is born into unsatisfactory circumstances they are given help and resources, why shouldn’t the sprout get the same kindness? 

It is my firm belief that we should stop the imminent domain of the sprouts’ natural habitat, if not for the sake of generosity, for the principle of morality. 

You might know of the sprout: a small sapling above the ‘U’ of the Summit sign in the courtyard. It is not clear how long this has loomed above the minds of students. Through all of the stress and pressure that lies on the backs of students, the sprout on the roof provides courage to many, and hope to all. 

The sprout may have been waiting for months before it gained the courage to grow. Sophomore Amelia Otto said that her first sight of the sprout was about a year ago, and has grown with her and the Color Guard. 

“It was last fall season when I first started Color Guard. It was just the tiniest sprout, and it’s a full tree now,” Otto said. 

Though Otto noticed it early in her freshman year, head principal Dr. Emily McCown said she began to see the growth in the spring of 2024. 

“I started to notice it last spring.  I thought a branch had just blown there after a spring storm.  Over the summer I noticed it start to grow,” McCown said. 

No one knows for certain how the sprout arrived on the roof, nor do they understand how it survived. McCown said that she thinks the excess water and elements are what powers the sprout through tough times. 

“I think it is sustaining from water and maybe other debris that is in the gutter.  It looked like it was starting to die out a bit this fall,” McCown said. 

Removal of the sprout presents an issue in itself, this part of the roof specifically is difficult to reach, McCown said. 

“I discussed this over the summer with our head custodian. Unfortunately because that part of the roof is domed you can’t just walk over and pick it, we have to get a lift on the plaza to have it removed. We might look at doing that over an extended break,” McCown said. 

Through a frigid winter, spring storms, and a blistering summer, the sprout has persisted, just like the students of Summit. Otto said that the sprout is representative of the Guard’s mindset, and hard work. 

“The sprout it’s just something that the Color Guard uses to boost our confidence. We performed in front of it when we were outside practicing,” Otto said.