The Cost of Evolution

We begin as whispers

of who we might be,

soft sketches, unfinished,

waiting to be rewritten.

The world nudges us forward

through storms we didn’t ask for,

through endings too early,

through beginnings we weren’t ready for.

While everyone talks about growth

like it’s effortless,

like it’s something to admire

no one talks about

what it takes

to get there.

The slow falling apart.

The quiet breaking.

The parts of you you don’t get to keep.

Because change doesn’t knock

it crashes,

it dismantles,

it reinvents.

One day you know who you are,

and the next,

you hesitate

reaching for something familiar

and finding your hand empty.

Not better.

Not worse.

Just somewhere in between.

And that in-between,

That's where evolution breathes.

In the doubt,

the unnoticed shifts,

the quiet becoming

while the world looks away.

Because somewhere in the breaking,

something takes root a stronger voice,

a braver step,

a version of you you don’t yet know.

And maybe one day,

you’ll look back not at who you lost,

but at who you became.

Written by: Manali Dhage (11E)