C - ? and the Beautiful

The day I stepped into my teens, I thought of great days ahead, that
would be full of fun and frolic. I never once thought about the
seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years I had left behind.
Adolescence bucked up courage and befriended me. The one I had left
behind was the lost world. Suddenly changes, both physical and mental,
began to walk along the corridors of my teenage life.

The two plaits gave way to smarter haircuts, the face tended and cared
with a little touch of cosmetics, and dresses of the current fashion.
All this was so sudden and puberty brought with it beauty and grace.
Monthly problems and fear of stains became regular phenomenon of life.
The seniors talked in hush hush tones about their boyfriends, and the
word 'boyfriend' created a pleasing sensation in my mind. Interests
changed with time, boys found place not only in my life but same with
my friends. Shyness creeped in and there was a longing to have full
grown breasts like the beautiful ladies of the town.

The beautiful butterfly is not born in a day. We were taught in our
science class about the life cycle of a butterfly. With a lot of
interest, we collected caterpillars from the trees and kept them in
paper boxes, fed these greedy creatures with the leaves of plants. Such
voracious gobblers they were. After some days, a change took place and
the ugly caterpillars covered their bodies and took the form of
chrysalis. We were excited to see the whole process of the different
stages of the life of a butterfly taking place in the little paper box
used for the experiment. After resting for some days one fine morning
the cocoon broke its shell to let the colourful butterfly see the light
of the day. The beautiful wings helped this small creature to fly out
into a world of its own.

Like the butterfly, I and my friends changed into what I can say "? and
the Beautiful".