The things we do on our own as kids, is at times amazing. And sometimes, if we’re lucky, it stays with us.

I don’t even remember how old I was. But I remember the lesson in school had been about caterpillars turning to butterflies. There had always been caterpillars on the bush behind our house. So, I set out to observe this up close. I caught a caterpillar off a leaf. I started by putting it in a cardboard box. But I couldn’t see anything because he kept hiding under the leaves I’d put in with him. Then, I moved it to a jar with holes in the lid that I’d put in with a nail. Afterall, a caterpillar had to breathe.

I was the first one up at twilight to see what was going on in that jar. I watched it change from a caterpillar, to a chrysalis, to…