A Weed Is Merely a Misunderstood Flower
I never understood the whole "flowers vs. weeds" debate with dandelions, because to me, something as simple and beautiful as a dandelion should just be accepted as such. Why do we need to classify it?
However, if I simply must, I've always considered them flowers, blissfully yellow, bright harbringers of joy and spring. In kindergarten, one of my favorite memories was playing in the "meadow" behind our school. It was almost a golf course, what with its gently sloping, emerald green hills, and in the spring turned a vibrant shade of yellow due to the hundreds of dandelions that grew there. It was absolutely gorgeous, and me and my friends used to run blissfully through the flowers, rolling down the hills, and pick them to make huge bouquets.
Of course, there's always a foil to childhood innocence. One of the playground teachers that watched us scramble around to make sure we wouldn't get hurt or try to run away (I seriously don't know why we needed them!) saw me bringing in a huge handful of dandelions one day after recess and stopped me as I was walking in. She said I couldn't bring "weeds" into the school because they were messy and "distracting" and made me give them to her so she could throw them away. That moment has always stayed with me for some reason. I did manage to keep one in my pocket though, and while it was smashed slightly, it was still shining bright.