I am a Chinese Bamboo Tree

In the past year I have been likened unto a Unicorn, a fairy, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Mulan...and you get the picture. However, I would share with you that I hope to live in such a way that I might be likened unto a tree. The Chinese Bamboo Tree.

When planted, the Chinese Bamboo Tree is a bulb which must be diligently taken care of. For four years of consistent care there will be no proof that a bulb was ever planted. During this time the growth is all underground where there is developing an extensive root system to support the tree so that in the fifth year the tree will suddenly burst from beneath the soil and can grow upwards of eighty feet in one year! Some days extending itself as much as a meter vertically. (One source said that the bamboo tree can even grow upwards of "NINETY FEET IN SIX WEEKS," however, for arguments sake...this number seemed a bit hyperbolic).

Is that not incredible growth?

However, I do not want to be likened unto the myth that says when the Chinese Bamboo Tree blooms it portends famine. I would consider myself a late bloomer...but I do not wish to bloom only once in fifty years!! :O

Perhaps I need to rethink what I really wish to be compared to?