An Amazing Metamorphosis

Of all my family members, my second elder brother was our worst worry. Struggling for placement and acceptance, he always had his own way of working things out.

Growing up the second of four children, he quenched his thirst for love and attention in a way much different than we siblings. He used to be a trouble maker in school during his secondary school life. Playing truancy, smoking in school, offending teachers were among the common discipline problems that filled in all his rebellious years. At one point, his discipline problem was so serious that the school suspended him for two weeks. Downhearted, mum and dad treated him 10 times stricter than before. Instead of transforming into a well-behaved boy, he resented staying home more than he had had. He would spend day and night outside drinking with friends. To him, home was merely a place covered with roof for him to sleep underneath.

Still, we kept waiting for the miracle to come about. Three decades flipped through like pages of a book yet his maturity remained static. We started to convince ourselves that he was destined to be the black sheep of the family. Also, we gave up in believing that there would always be sunshine and rainbow after every rainy day. YET...we were proved wrong.

The day we had been waiting for finally crept into our life without even knocking at our door. We woke up in one fine morning and surprisingly found that my brother had metamorphosed from an abominable caterpillar into a lovely butterfly. How he succeeded in the metamorphosis process we didn't know; all we knew was we were overwhelmed by the miraculous transformation.

Where has the most annoying, insensible and irresponsible guy gone then? Frankly, we couldn't care less what happens to "him" for we aren't going to find "him". No way. We already had what we longed for - - - a better son, a better brother and of cause a better man.