Being Yourself

Juli Baker was not the most popular girl in school. She was too much of an independent, free-thinking girl and could not relate to other girls who were more concerned with clothes and getting tans than they were about things that really mattered. Juli learned a lot about appreciating nature and the good things in life from her father. Although her father was a bricklayer by trade, he was an artist and painted whenever he had time. He loved to paint landscapes and told Juli that even in life it was best to take in the entire landscape - the big picture - rather than focus on a narrow portion of it.

Juli loved a big sycamore tree in a vacant lot near her house. She didn't have many friends—probably because she was more mature and smarter than most of them—so she would...