Sad Moment of Nature

I made a great friend for a brief moment. In the next moment, he was very suddenly and terribly murdered. I learned an important lesson that day.

It all began one day at the University of Houston, in between classes, when I had nothing much else to do but sit on a bench and observe the great circle of life taking place within the blades of grass that one normally doesn't pay attention to. I'd been waiting for my boyfriend to arrive and have lunch with me. I, like anyone else in our modern society, was not expecting anything to be going on in those blades of grass and was instead giving much more attention to my phone.

That was until I noticed some movement down there. He happened to catch my attention, this little grey and somewhat translucent caterpillar, wriggling about as he did. I could see curiosity and determination in the movements of this young creature. The precious little thing was just beginning his life. So innocent.

Who was to know what would become of his squirmy little body? I could only imagine great things for him. All caterpillars become butterflies, right?

That's what I believed, that a sweet little caterpillar such as this would one day wrap himself up and later emerge as the beautiful butterfly he was destined to become. It turns out, this isn't always the future of a caterpillar.

My attention turned away from my caterpillar at the notice of some other movement nearby. These insects had been around, but they hadn't come too close to me and my buddy. They hadn't given themselves much need to be noticed, until one started coming a bit too close.

This evil yellow-stripped wasp zipped into the story, his speedy little dark brown wings bringing him to land directly on our friendly caterpillar. Before I could process what was occurring, the wasp devoured the caterpillar. His lithe grey body became a dark green ball under the power of the wasp. The caterpillar was no more.

I was absolutely shocked, but I learned an important lesson that day. Well, two.

Not all caterpillars become butterflies. Some become wasp food.

And, for this reason, wasps suck, and we must remove them from the earth. Join my movement to avenge my caterpillar. Together, we can defeat evil wasps.

#eliminatewasps #savecaterpillars #nature #insects #animals #caterpillar #wasp