The Broader Spectrum

This post is a 2.5 min read

Hello everyone!

This week’s post is going to really show my nerdy side since it’ll be all about Pokémon! I played so many Pokémon games on my Gameboy in the early 2000’s (FireRed, LeafGreen, Crystal, Red & Blue, Diamond, etc). Up until the time I was 13, I had only played on my Gameboy, but recently I picked it back up again with Pokémon GO.

In Pokémon GO the hardest thing to do is level up your Pokémon. You have to catch Pokémon after Pokémon to gain “candy” to level them up. Today I was lucky enough to not only level up a handful of Pokémon, but that I was also able to evolve them!

Evolving a Pokémon is the Pokémon’s next stage of growth- it’ll often be stronger, cooler looking, and become more useful to you as a Pokémon trainer.

A Magikarp- a floppy useless Pokémon- can turn into a very powerful Gyarados!

After I evolved my Pidgey, it occurred to me that I wanted to be just like this creature- transforming into something upgraded, something stronger, and something a little more aggressive.

An UPgrade

When I tend to set out to make a change, I think, “I need to get rid of blank.”

Replacement was my method of growth for a long, long time.
Replace this bad characteristic. Replace that habit.
But, how negative! Sometimes, I don’t seem to ever like anything about myself.

However, the incessant gnawing of guilt and discouragement from repeated mistakes was pounding my brain at any second of the day. I could never do anything right! Why is that? Am I really that incompetent? Am I truly destined to be stuck with my unwanted characteristics?

I recently began to question who I am. Who I really am. Some would call this an identity crisis:

A period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person’s sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or role in society.

Oxford Dictionary

I would go deeper into this, but the point is that I want to be- something- better. I want to be a better version of myself. I want to have “better graphics”. And I don’t want to be 720p, oh no. I want to be 1080p.

But how do I get there?

RGB

Did you know that every screen is made up of the three primary colors: red, green, and blue?
The example below shows the colors of a screen that has the three primary colors and three additional colors composed of two of the three primary colors mixed equally: Cyan, purple(ish), and yellow.

Courtesy of Klaus Sgori

Basically, everything comes from RGB.
We are the same. We all come from the inner roots of who we are. For some, this is pensive. For others this is silly or boisterous. Who you are inside is beautiful and it makes up everything about you.

So instead of seeing growth or transformation as a change, it can be more of an evolution to a better you. You don’t have to get rid of so many things in your life to be unrecognizable! Sometimes we do need to get rid of some bad things we hold on to, but we don’t need to change who we are!

So, as much as I love Princess Diaries, that movie had a whack idea of what it means to be beautiful.

Keep who you are, but improve. Keep the primary parts of yourself and evolve.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s post! Comment your thoughts on transformation, staying true to who you are, identity crises, or Pokémon!

And for fun, a video of me evolving my Pidgey.

See you next week!

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