Penguin or dragonfly.

Sometime during my teenage years I realized I had wings. Cool! What should I do with these wings? Well, I started with what felt most natural. I swam with them.

I was a penguin.

Somewhere down the road, after doing penguin things for a while, I got to thinking about my wings. Maybe I should use them for flying? Maybe I was limiting myself by being a penguin? Maybe my wings were meant for more?

So, I changed courses and started doing dragonfly things. Because I had wings. And dragonflies had wings. So… why not be a dragonfly?

And I went on, to do a lot of dragonfly things for a lot of years. And I was a pretty good dragonfly most days. Some days I was even a great dragonfly. I was able to forget about penguin things (most of the time).

Yet, sometimes, on days when it seemed really hard to be a dragonfly, I still thought about being a penguin. But I ignored those thoughts and kept on using my wings to dragonfly through life.

And yet…

If I were my own best friend, I would tell myself it’s hard to keep being a dragonfly when you really want to be a penguin. You can do a lot of dragonfly things and probably be a pretty great dragonfly, but at the end of the day (week, month, life) you may regret not being the penguin you were meant to be.

It’s not too late. To lay down the dragonfly wings and things. To waddle back over to being a penguin. To slip back into the water and use those wings for something other than flight. To return to what felt natural in the very beginning.

What about you? Are you a penguin trapped in a dragonfly’s world?