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My gardening stage is set in the sultry deserts of Iraq. I was stationed there for a year as a National Guards member in 2006. After several months of intensively long work shifts, heat fatigue, and boredom, many people found comfort in the boxes shipped to them from home.

I had heard of soldiers receiving seeds or plants in the mail. There were rumors that some people would try to grow flowers, vegetables, and even grass in the harsh desert ground. I thought it was just one of the many myths soldiers would throw around at each other to try and whittle the time away. It was a lovely thought in theory, but in practice? I was convinced that trying to grow plants in Iraq would just be one more disappointing thing.

Shortly after the "gardening myth" was bouncing around my head, I noticed a small miracle. Underneath a bench surrounded by sand and concrete was a tomato plant. It was growing in seemingly barren ground. I was astounded! It was over a foot tall by the time I noticed it and it had three little white blooms. I picked a leaf and smelled it as if my eyes were deceiving me. The tell tale aroma of a tomato plant was over powering. It put a bounce in my step. The heat didn't seem so obtrusive. It was like a little piece of North America was growing right next to me in Iraq.

The next week I noticed that it wasn't there anymore. Some Iraqi laborers had come by and chopped it down. They were hired to clear out any debris from the area and I suppose a foreign tomato plant would certainly look like that to them. I couldn't blame them for doing their job but for some reason I felt a profound sadness for this little plant. I told myself that it didn't really belong there in the first place. It had no place flourishing in this wasteland.

But even with the insurmountable odds against it, it still grew. The accidental seed of a tomato plant shipped to an anonymous soldier in Iraq still managed to bloom out of the desert. It's this small example of determination from a tomato plant that helped me survive as well.

Learn more about this author, Jami Gibbs.
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