The Charmander in us

He didn’t know how to keep up with his existence when his ideals were constantly shattered. He tried to do what he loved. Doing that stopped giving him any sense of satisfaction. They thought he was going to fade away like the rest of them do. He knew he was going to fade away because there was no fire left on the tail of his inner Charmander and it was raining all around him. He found himself without a cave to sleep in. He went ahead struggling to keep his tail dry and sat under a tree. He made a small cave of leaves and put his tail under it. He could feel his energy slowly sinking away. He was trying to keep his fire burning while the world thought he was up to no good. The world didn’t know how hard it is to be a Charmander.

He survived through the night. Somehow trying to save the last joule of energy inside him. It had stopped raining hours ago but his energy wasn’t enough to get up and eat something. More than the energy, there was no hope left in him. He didn’t even want to try and brighten up his fire. He laid there, thinking about how all of it ended up like this, how he thought doing what he did best would satisfy and fill up that hole in his life. He thought about the times when he was in college, how he used to outperform everyone without much effort and loved what he did. He couldn’t find a single drop of that enthusiasm anymore.

Just when he thought there is no point of his existence, he saw a Charizard flying by. His survival instincts kicked in and he tried to hide. He knew how ruthless Charizards can be. The Charizard noticed him and swiftly grabbed him by his strong paws and started to fly higher. He noticed that the Charizard was quite old but his aura was such that he never felt before. He knew the Charizard is going to eat him alive. He accepted his fate and hung there motionless without any will to survive.

The Charizard flew for almost an hour and landed on the mouth of a dormant volcano. Charmander was surprised about the place. The Charizard didn’t even speak a word and threw him inside the mouth of the volcano. He knew that the volcano was not active and it wouldn’t kill him. He rolled through the hot rough surface for a minute and he came to a stop in some place which looked like a cave. There was lava flowing in a few small streams nearby. He noticed a Vulpix, Growlithe and a Cyndaquill lying there in the corner. He felt home. He spent the whole day there and forgot about his sadness in life. He came to know that others felt the same in a way and they were trying out new things in life. After all, it is not the end of his evolution.

Often in life, we feel like a Charmander, trying to keep his fire alive. Sometimes we lose all the hope we had. All that we worked for in life seems worthless. We feel like we don’t even matter anymore. It is true somewhere. We don’t matter as much as we think we do. The earth is so old and we have just been here for the last hundred and fifty thousand years. The moment when you stop thinking about your own existence and think holistically, you’d realise that everyone is a part of something big which we fail to see. After all, we are all tiny insignificant carbon atoms trying to make a living.