A photo profile of student Maria Southworth
By KELLY PFEISTER
Head Photographer
Hi! This week is the start of a photo profile/story in The Chronicle. I’ve always thought that students at Saint Rose were special, and I wanted to showcase a little bit about what makes them so. My first subject is Maria Southworth, music education major, who graciously invited me inside of her home to photograph her flower clip collection.
If you don’t know her by name, you have probably seen her around Massry, or performing with the Girls Next Door. She’s the girl on campus that wears a flower clip in her hair every day. Some are tiny, while others take up the majority of the back of her head. They’re all different colors and patterns too – rainbow, music notes, and one with silver rhinestones. She has worn them to special occasions – weddings, concerts, and prom – she even had the hairdresser work them into her hairstyle.
The tradition started during the middle of Southworth’s junior year in high school. Her mother brought her flowers to cheer her up when she was going through a bad time at school, and said it was just “a small thing that got me through the day.” Three years later it still is, and the amount of flower clips has grown to over 50.
Southworth and her mother make most of the flower clips. They buy fake flowers at A.C Moore or Michaels, along with hair clips, felt, and hot glue them together – she said it’s very simple.
Southworth’s flower philosophy is simple – “Nobody’s life is perfect. We all have our issues and problems and drama.” She explained that her flowers help her to remember that if she’s having a bad day, “I should remember the small good things that happened that day, and I realize that my life is pretty amazing.”
“But when I wear them I feel I can be who I am… It makes me smile when people like my flowers, because if I can make one person smile because of my flowers, that’s all that matters.”
Southworth keeps her flower clips in a drawer, and in a wicker basket, although floral decoration has crept into her room. She has flowers hanging on her wall, and a dried rose in a vase near her window. 
As a challenge, I asked Southworth to put as many flowers as she could in her hair. The final count was 15, not including her floral headband. She picks her flowers depending on what she’s wearing, but sometimes it’s the other way around.
