Metamorphosis

The first time I read about ‘Metamorphosis’, I was in eighth grade and the word intrigued me enough to answer an objective question of “What is Metamorphosis?”Little did I know at that time that I was going through a kind of metamorphosis too. With raging hormones and mood swings, I stepped into the realm of puberty. Change is not easy for anyone and change is an organic part of puberty. You begin to like songs which you thought were meant for the hippies, you begin to read things you found boring in childhood. It was in this part of my life when I read Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”. Even though I did not understand anything I found the word induced with enough intellect to use it in all my poems.

The reason I am writing this article is because I feel I am currently going through Metamorphosis, and this continuous process of evolving yourself can at times furnish one ennui but mostly we just continue to allow it to make the changes for better. All of us are going through this process but it’s when a new chapter begins that you realize this is the ultimate chapter and the ultimate stage of your evolution; when you will either transform yourself into a butterfly or a moth. However, the end does not really matter as long as you evolve since evolution always overpowers revolution

 Being away from home puts a new set of responsibilities on your shoulder which helps you to shed the cocoon of comfort you are so used to. It’s no doubt an uncomfortable process, you will miss the warmth which was sweltering to you at one point, you will miss the food which you once thought was inedible and more than that you will miss a part of you which you have lost in the process of metamorphosis and at every step, you will ask “Is it worth it?” To voluntarily make yourself go through a process of change might torment you, tease you, and most of all remakes you. Honestly, I don’t know whether it is worth it yet but I know this much that this is an expedition to find a part of yourself which was undiscovered and intangible to everyone else, even to you before you embarked upon this journey. Hermann Hesse ‘s “Siddhartha” which is about a young Brahmin’s search for ultimate reality after meeting with the Buddha makes a distinction between searching and finding. He says “That in all the searching, you don’t find the time for finding.”The process of Metamorphosis helps you to do the latter. Comfort is inversely proportional to metamorphosis but I guess the mystery of each step keeps us going. The thrill of what’s next to come is the catalyst which makes the process as interesting as it is. You don’t know whether you will survive but the confidence that you will thrive helps you to survive.

There is clarity in ambiguity. I don’t know the person I will have transformed into three years from now or for that matter even a month from today. However I do know this, whenever the struggle to survive becomes too tiring I will just recall a line from my favorite poem “Ulysses” written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. “One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”