{"id":18936,"date":"2024-02-08T13:23:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T19:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/?p=18936"},"modified":"2024-02-08T13:23:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T19:23:19","slug":"metamorphosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2024\/02\/08\/metamorphosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Metamorphosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I adore bugs. Their biology is incredibly interesting, they&#8217;re the most populous creature on the planet, they look almost alien, and they are incredibly important parts of the environment. Bugs are absolutely incredible, and I love them for it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18947 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Thorn-Treehopper-300x215.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Thorn-Treehopper-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Thorn-Treehopper.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Past me, however, disagrees. Bugs are terrifying little critters for reasons past me can&#8217;t explain. Their twitching wings and spindly legs make past me want to scream. Their compound eyes and clicking mouths are worth past me&#8217;s tears. Is there a house fly stuck in the blinds? Time to move location. Is there a cockroach in the bedroom? Time to sleep on the couch.<\/p>\n<p>That last one was actually rather recent in the grand scheme of things- it happened in 2023. So, question: how on earth am I not afraid of bugs anymore?<\/p>\n<p>The answer: I&#8217;m still afraid of bugs, but I&#8217;m working on it. My fear has been steadily declining. One of my life goals is to be able to hold a bug.<\/p>\n<p>I wish I could give a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough of this me-metamorphosis, but memory is a murky thing. I know the driving factor in this change of heart was realizing just how amazing bugs are. Instead of thinking of them as little pests, I recognized them for the important roles they play in the cycle of life. I&#8217;m much more into weird things now than I was in the past, too, and what&#8217;s more whacky than bugs? There are some absolutely crazy bugs out there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18950 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Scorpion-Fly-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Scorpion-Fly-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Scorpion-Fly-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Scorpion-Fly-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Scorpion-Fly-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Scorpion-Fly-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Scorpion-Fly.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are also bugs that are strikingly beautiful!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18969 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Baorisa_hieroglyphica_302203904-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Baorisa_hieroglyphica_302203904-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Baorisa_hieroglyphica_302203904-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Baorisa_hieroglyphica_302203904-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Baorisa_hieroglyphica_302203904-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Baorisa_hieroglyphica_302203904-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Baorisa_hieroglyphica_302203904-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Baorisa_hieroglyphica_302203904.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The more I learned about bugs, the more interested in them I became. Perhaps knowing more about them lessened my fear? Maybe learning about other fears of mine will make me less afraid of them, too. Not all of my fears are as cool as little critters, though.<\/p>\n<p>Whenever I think about this bug-loving journey I&#8217;m on, it reminds me of all the other ways I&#8217;ve changed, and the ways I&#8217;m still changing. With humans, I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s an end to our metamorphosis as a whole. I think parts of us go through metamorphosis at different times, then go through the cycle again. Though maybe that opinion itself will go through metamorphosis in the future. What does it feel like to emerge from a cocoon, anyhow?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I adore bugs. Their biology is incredibly interesting, they&#8217;re the most populous creature on the planet, they look almost alien, and they are incredibly important parts of the environment. Bugs are absolutely incredible, and I love them for it. Past me, however, disagrees. Bugs are terrifying little critters for reasons past me can&#8217;t explain. Their &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2024\/02\/08\/metamorphosis\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Metamorphosis&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18936"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18982,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18936\/revisions\/18982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}