Week 6: Stencil

I chose to use a rose on my cover because I feel that it represents who I am. My name means flower and I have come to associate my name with a rose in particular. This rose means love to me because it signifies endurance. Just like how a flower grows, the rose comes to mean passion to me, like the enduring love I have for my family and friends, because as my relationships grow so does my love for them. The love I have for them is symbolized through the rose as long-lasting and continuous, carrying on from now into the future. For me, it means not only a continuous love but also relates to the connections that are built between two people and the power of that bond. The petals build upon each other and are difficult to separate without tearing. They are delicate just like how our relationships to others are, which means that one must be mindful of the way in which we interact with others. With growth, comes new relationships and the loss of old ones. The leaves symbolize growth because I receive guidance from my family and friends, and from it, I have learned and continue to grow and improve. The stem symbolizes the support I receive from them - be it through words of validation, gifts, acts of service -  and how these different kinds of love hold me up. However, I also have included thorns in my image because life can get difficult at certain times, and it is always best to acknowledge that with the good comes the bad, yet these moments help us to remind ourselves that we are not alone, and that the strength of our relationships will always be there to guide us.