So, today in advanced biology class, we just started flaying (skinning) the poor cat that we will dissect over the next few weeks. Fortunately, the cat was already dead, so I did not have to suffer the emotional pain that comes with inflicting such pain on a poor, innocent animal just for scientific pursuits.
I was rummaging through my old Facebook notes for a short story (written in the frog's point of view) I wrote about frog dissection (which is fiction of course). I remembered everything like it was two days ago, when in fact, the frog dissection was two years ago in sophomore biology class. Here it is, original and unedited:
I was bought in a pet shop, and I was smiling at the teenager who took me in. I was hoping for good times together, like a dog and his master. At first, we were friends, but all of that had to change drastically. The teenager told his friend that he pities the frog. I did not know what he was talking about. Then, the fateful day has come. After being grabbed tightly by his hands that reek of surgical gloves that smell funny, a cotton ball was put up near my nostrils and the last thing I smelled is the pungent smell of chloroform that soon enough lulled me to sleep.
At first, I felt that shattering pain from the pins that pierced me to the bones and beyond as I was crucified onto a board. I knew only then what I was in for, and it was inevitable. I was shaking and I was very nervous. And then, all of a sudden, everything was at peace with my sensations.
I was already talking to a great white frog guarding heaven's gate, and he then showed me through a screen what I was really, actually in for, that I am still alive but I'm barely breathing. I then saw what has got to be the most gruesome thing I have ever seen in my entire life. I saw my insides popping out, and I saw the high school students staring at my organs as I had to be studied. Some of them in disgust, as others were felling sorry for me and all the others actually played with frog innards. I was just lucky enough that I was one of those frogs that were dissected perfectly.
And so I asked the great white frog why after all that time I had served the humans by devouring the insects that pester them, they just had to cut me out like that. I envy the frogs that are free and in the forests, enjoying their lives without a care in the world. The white frog said that in this life, sacrifices always have to be made in order for others to benefit. That was a sad reality I had to face. I had sacrificed my body, my life, and especially, my chance to meet a hot frog chick who will hence help me multiply and become many. I had been single since birth, and I was only put together with male frogs ever since. The females were right at the other end. Well, never mind that. I said that humans were cruel for doing that to me, of all the other many frogs out there.
The white frog then said that humans also search for knowledge and wisdom, and deep down, they also hate to have to cut out the frog. But then, because of the natural instinct of man to thirst for knowledge, he had to do it. The white frog also emphasized that even humans and all other creatures have to face the reality that in life, the difficulties that come with sacrifice can never be gone. He said furthermore that there are still many other frogs that have to go through the same thing, and sadly, there is nothing any of us can do about it. I was struck by that statement, but alas I have known that truth a little too late. Well, the white frog has a point. At least the students have learned something by causing me the pain of my life as the vision of the white frog and the television screen began to fade.
I was back in the laboratory, and I was conscious again as I felt the intense pain from having my enlarged lungs exposed to the air, and my heart beating as cold air from the laboratory touches it. I had to be disposed of in the bucket along with the other frogs who shared my same sorry fate. I had to be left to die with them in a claustrophobic space where I can no longer hop as all my innards are exposed and are heavier, now that my lower skin has been cut out.
I waited and waited there, in the fetid smell of the dumps where we, the frogs with sorry fates, had to be disposed of. I knew that this immense pain will end. It will end soon... and all of a sudden I am at peace, and I am now in a serene, beautiful forest with a lot of other frogs- in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They have also shared with each other, and me, the suffering they all had to experience as their last moments on earth. I know now that the white frog was so right, and that at least there are people who are doing something so that less of us can suffer similarly. But alas, there is really nothing any of us- the frogs and the humans- can really do. Sacrifices really have to be made, and I am one of them.
I was rummaging through my old Facebook notes for a short story (written in the frog's point of view) I wrote about frog dissection (which is fiction of course). I remembered everything like it was two days ago, when in fact, the frog dissection was two years ago in sophomore biology class. Here it is, original and unedited:
I was bought in a pet shop, and I was smiling at the teenager who took me in. I was hoping for good times together, like a dog and his master. At first, we were friends, but all of that had to change drastically. The teenager told his friend that he pities the frog. I did not know what he was talking about. Then, the fateful day has come. After being grabbed tightly by his hands that reek of surgical gloves that smell funny, a cotton ball was put up near my nostrils and the last thing I smelled is the pungent smell of chloroform that soon enough lulled me to sleep.
At first, I felt that shattering pain from the pins that pierced me to the bones and beyond as I was crucified onto a board. I knew only then what I was in for, and it was inevitable. I was shaking and I was very nervous. And then, all of a sudden, everything was at peace with my sensations.
I was already talking to a great white frog guarding heaven's gate, and he then showed me through a screen what I was really, actually in for, that I am still alive but I'm barely breathing. I then saw what has got to be the most gruesome thing I have ever seen in my entire life. I saw my insides popping out, and I saw the high school students staring at my organs as I had to be studied. Some of them in disgust, as others were felling sorry for me and all the others actually played with frog innards. I was just lucky enough that I was one of those frogs that were dissected perfectly.
And so I asked the great white frog why after all that time I had served the humans by devouring the insects that pester them, they just had to cut me out like that. I envy the frogs that are free and in the forests, enjoying their lives without a care in the world. The white frog said that in this life, sacrifices always have to be made in order for others to benefit. That was a sad reality I had to face. I had sacrificed my body, my life, and especially, my chance to meet a hot frog chick who will hence help me multiply and become many. I had been single since birth, and I was only put together with male frogs ever since. The females were right at the other end. Well, never mind that. I said that humans were cruel for doing that to me, of all the other many frogs out there.
The white frog then said that humans also search for knowledge and wisdom, and deep down, they also hate to have to cut out the frog. But then, because of the natural instinct of man to thirst for knowledge, he had to do it. The white frog also emphasized that even humans and all other creatures have to face the reality that in life, the difficulties that come with sacrifice can never be gone. He said furthermore that there are still many other frogs that have to go through the same thing, and sadly, there is nothing any of us can do about it. I was struck by that statement, but alas I have known that truth a little too late. Well, the white frog has a point. At least the students have learned something by causing me the pain of my life as the vision of the white frog and the television screen began to fade.
I was back in the laboratory, and I was conscious again as I felt the intense pain from having my enlarged lungs exposed to the air, and my heart beating as cold air from the laboratory touches it. I had to be disposed of in the bucket along with the other frogs who shared my same sorry fate. I had to be left to die with them in a claustrophobic space where I can no longer hop as all my innards are exposed and are heavier, now that my lower skin has been cut out.
I waited and waited there, in the fetid smell of the dumps where we, the frogs with sorry fates, had to be disposed of. I knew that this immense pain will end. It will end soon... and all of a sudden I am at peace, and I am now in a serene, beautiful forest with a lot of other frogs- in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They have also shared with each other, and me, the suffering they all had to experience as their last moments on earth. I know now that the white frog was so right, and that at least there are people who are doing something so that less of us can suffer similarly. But alas, there is really nothing any of us- the frogs and the humans- can really do. Sacrifices really have to be made, and I am one of them.