STRUGGLE IS GOOD
Once a little boy was playing outdoors and found a
fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his
mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he
would take good care of it.
The
little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to
climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new
plants to eat.
One
day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy
worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was
creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going
to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.
The
little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go
through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it
happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to
struggle to come out.
At
first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was
struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked
desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!
The
boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, and then walked
back (because he had learned not to run with scissors…). He snipped the cocoon
to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!
As
the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small,
shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any
moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body.
He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly’s wings would
expand.
But neither happened!
The
butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and
shriveled wings.
It
never was able to fly…
As
the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong his mother took him to talk to a
scientist from a local college. He learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the
butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon
pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the
butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy’s good intentions hurt the
butterfly.
As
you go through school, and life, keep in mind that struggling is an important
part of any growth experience. In fact, it is the struggle that causes you to
develop your ability to fly.
