The great journey

The journey that each of us on the earth has taken part in.

Ready. Aim. Fire

And where off, a fast track up toward our goal. Swimming side by side with our comarads, similar in mission all differnt but by sight almost the same. Most possibly the most dangerous mission we will ever face, and if we fail ...well then we never existed. Two lost too the left of us, dive into a wall and somewhat explode as natural defences destroy there tender life signs, a few of us at the beginning left behind seeming incapable of nothing more than chasing there tails in desperation. Swimming toward a goal we cant quite begin to imagine at that point, its simply a playful race between our brothers and sisters. We where created within the same small place fired into a warm and inviting existance all together and where still blind to the real reason for this race. This playful game of testorone. Charging in a straight line, aiming for a target we dont understand but are drawn toward, its scent filling our nostrils and driving us forward.

Soon we realise this race is more than just a game our instincs taking over, the friendship bond we have with our fellow competors breaking as competition streaks thru our bodies. A furious battle to be the first to burrow inside our new home, nolonger friends with those who swim alongside us. A casual bardge sends an old friend spinning painfully to a side there paddle broken bent in half doomed to circle endlessly. And we tower on speeding now , passing by the weaker. Survival of the fittest even at this early stage.

The smell is stronger now, a welcoming scent to our tired being. We have swam this violent path for nearly three days when we even catch the faint glimspe of what the struggle is for. The last leg to a uncertain comfort. Head first we plundge , burrowing deeply inside the egg. Our previous aquaintances left to do nothing but watch at our triumpth.

And then we live alone for a long time. What must to us all of seemed like an eternity, developing things we now feel we had from the start. Our host unaware of our existance until we've found comfort for a whole four weeks. And then we split, multiply making exact copies our selfs over and over again. Soon these weird shapes form inside us, a small round item pumping liquid round our bodies , two large sacks for intaking large amounts of air. And we begin to explore our limted surrounds reaching out with littlle hands to play with the tube that extends from our tummys. Soon sounds fliter through our home, from far away , from a world we havent yet seen. Sometimes loud , sometimes quiet , soothing or simply just white noise. At this current stage we seem to be aware of our bodies natural need for sleep, fading in and out conciousness and waking to the warm comforting existance we live.

Just as we begin to feel fully comfertable and accept this to be our final home something drastic happens. The muscles all around us tense violently and the liquid from around us appears to simply vanish and leave us floating within air. And then the muscles tense again and we are moving, screaming for pure fear of uncertainity. We see a light , what strange creatures are doing this to our home, bring down our safe walls and pushing us toward this daunting light. We want to crawl up into a little ball back inside this warm fleeting reality from which we have grown in. But before long there seems no hope of remaining there, warm hands clasp around our heads tugging slightly and we hear pained screams from our host. Crying out in distress we lodge tightly, being forced out by contracting muscles. This light is strangly blinding , nothing like the silent darkness we are used to there are voices everywhere, loud and some filled with fear. And weare forced more and more into this chaotic scene. Gently we debate if we have now died or if some strange alien has stolen us from our place of belonging. Plunged into a world and wrapped tightly into a bundle of blankets, itchy to our gentle skin but warm and slightly comferting. A man or woman in a white cloack snaps our feeding tube from our tummy and leaves us to scramble and wiggle around. We cry out for help but noone seems to quite understand that all we want is to return to where we once where, they seem to belive we need prodding and poking which causes us nothing but more distress.

Eventually we are plundged into the arms of a woman, who coo's at us and hugs us close to her. Pulling out a round milk machine that we instictavly suckle at, the fluid is satisfiying. And morish but she places us away and her eyes close. Following by example our eyes also shut and in these strange new surroundes we sleep.

Much much later in life we'll sleep again not the same sleep, altho as we grow and extend in both height in width many others will talk of this sleep of which we never seem to wake again. Our only comfort in these strange surroundings are the woman who feeds us , offering that round milk machine when we snuggle at her chest. But not even that lasts forever in this ever changing place, soon there are harder foods, with bits that have tastes and variations. Our little tounges are some what confused by new tingling sensations. We develop clear favorties for tastes of these exotic creations. Soon our need for discovery will take over, crawling into nooks and crannys on those long appendaditious the big people call arms and legs. The big people seem to lavish attention on us more and more and are pleased by our replies and conversation. They dont seem to speak in the same language as us, imiating and copying the sounds but never answering the question we throw at them.

A searing pain wrentches our eating organ as hard white objects intrude the gums. Our only reposnse to scream and yell and hope that woman can take the pain away. More pop thru one after the other, adn we constatly shearch for things to place in our mouths and chew on to distract us from teh pain and learn what there uses are. These new items knock together make suckling on things all the more exciting. Sooner or later we learn that we can speak in the confusing tounge those big people use, not quite as cleary but if we shape our moves liek they shape there's we can create resonably similar sounds and when we do they bask more attention upon us so we make an effort to try to perfect learning these new words.

Crawling on our appendges is becoming far to slow a way to get around, and we shearch cautiously for another way, pulling on banisters and holding ourselfs upright with only our feet on the floor. We begin taking a few wobbly steps and hit our heads on a few things before we quite get the hang of it. But after all the tears the new ablity to get around and drive our parents insane by running of seems well worth the bruizes we obtained while learning.After a while we find that if we move our legs slightly faster speed increases as does teh amount of injurys and accdental knocking things over. But we get aourn much faster and away from mummy to play some good old chase games. We shearch for more things to play with at this point reaching out for little dangly things that prehaps the owner shud never have brought near us. Earings, tie's and nose rings , hair and anything else within reach.

Mummy places books within our hands and we stare blanky at the pages waiting for something to happen when it dosent we soon think of something else to do. And mummy will of course return it to our hands and begin to read teh pages out despte our interest beng on that shiiny thing over that seems to have created another young child just like ourselfs. After a whle we think its time to show mummy that we are the best at these kind of activites and throw the book as far away as possible and reach for the puzzle ball and once again correctly slot the little plastic pieces thru the holes. The star being stupidly difficult and involving some angry smaching before it follows the other shapes, but all in all showing everything within a 20 mile radius that we are indeed suprior.

We still havent quite masterted the avoidance of wet nappies , slipping up now and agian when our attention is elsewhere. But that potty is rather scary and we can deal with it another day for now its just a ltitle to much effort to hold in that desperate need to urinate. A load more wet nights lay ahead and uncomfterable sleeping is the least of our worries. Its time to explore and make the most of the new found freedom where getting.

Suddenly we become aware that some kids arent the same as us and posses totallly differnt body parts that we dont have, this intrest isnt so well recved from the adults and we are scolded for playing doctor or simply being mesmerized by the strange parts other people posses. Eventually we learn of socially acceptable actions, and then eventually we'll learn to disobey them despte knowing what they are but not quite yet.

Slowly we learnt new things. Important things for the furture but things that never really seemed nessarcy at time. We could now read the simply books that mummy had lined up just waiting for teh day. THE DOG WENT HOME. The amount of times we've all read that sentance but for some odd reason it always did seem to entertain us. And then the need to scribble and draw our own books with funky little pictures. That never did really resemble what they where meant to , to anyone but ourselves. As things go on we pick up boxes cut holes in them and are forever entertained runnign around underneath them. Plastic bags make us ghosts, and little play blocks can become forts for wars. Kitchen tools make space for games of mummy and daddy without really understand the complex emotional bonds our parents had.

Mental curiousty blooms in us. And we shearch for answers discovering the true power of the W words. WHERE? WHY? WHAT? HOW? WHEN?  We seem to be forever asking questions of those around us , to things we perhaps arent meant to kno and eventually we'lll pop the where did we come from question and the adults will shy away and attempt to protect our innocence for just a little longer.

We'll soon find out then when we grow yet bigger and bigger and disconnect from are parents. Tend to spend more times at friends houses and creating imaginative worlds that we retreat to, socialing less and less with that invisible friend. The next few stages come without warning to our parents we grow and we develop our own personalitys, unique in our favorite places , habits and friends.  Genlty being feel emotions toward others and eventually a bond perhaps with another being for which the first use of the word love comes into play. Ah but there will be much of that much heart break and pain. Until we meet the final one and even then despite feelng love for the first tiem it might not end so sweetly adn then we will be able to honestly kno our heart has been broken.

Then when we are called a teenager a menace to society. Filled with rebellion agasint the tight locks our parents placed on us. Slowly becoming the people we will be in teh business world and deciding on future careeas, our parents wondering where the time has gone. And when we changed into such loud mouthed and disrespectful beings. That is to be judged really we are not all alike, not so much anymore. We look nothing alike now. All created in the same way swimming forcefully toward that goal all very similar in apparance now changed and edited both mentally and pyshically definatly not the same as those we swam among before. And all those people we call friends made in teh same way now look nothing alike and all posses different thoughts and ambitions. Some of us where still running towards the same goals but taking diffent approaches and following from differnt angels.

Eventually.. we all do get to teh same goal, a goal that in a way we where avoiding, being the same once again. Not instantly i mean we lay there under the ground for a while before our features become unrecogniable. It takes time alot of time alot more time that was taken for us to be created but eventually we lie below the ground just bones. Again totally the same by first look to all those that lie near us. but really we where indavduals all along. Even at the start we where nothing alike just had no way of showing our indavduality

Author's Note

A take on the system of our reproductive systems

Reviews

[Zak]

Wow. That's amazing how you put it from a child's perspective and then it gets older and older, but the whole time it retains that utter human curiosity for the people around us and our environment. The title just simply...fits. It's an extremely human piece, almost Steinbeckian in prose. Great work!

-ZTF