For no good (or bad) reason, I was thinking about the ugly duckling story. Now the question is, would you rather be the ugly duckling(aka swan), or one of the normal ducklings. On the surface it seems that this question can be simplified. Would you rather fit in right away, or endure some hardships and later become something grand and amazing.
Here’s what I think. Don’t be a swan. There’s just too many uncertainties. Why was the ugly duckling abandoned by its parents? Was it crippled? Also, without swan parents, the ugly duckling will not learn the essentials of being a swan. It will instead partake in duck-like actions, which may or may not be beneficial to a swan. Example. Ducks like to quack and walk around relatively close to humans. If a swan did this, they would be picked up by a hungry fellow and cooked for dinner.
And what about the psychological effect? The ugly duckling may be mentally scarred by the time it attains it’s swan status. It’s almost similar to thinking you’re a girl for your whole life and then finding out you’re a boy. The mental damage from being teased and bullied during childhood can’t be ignored either. The ugly duckling may very well not even make it to adulthood.
Even if the ugly ducking does get to the point where it is a majestic swan, what’s next? It has no friends, unless you consider the now inferior ducks friends. And even if it considers the duck enemies, it’s not exactly well equipped to take on a whole swarm of ducks in a fight to the death.
There are just too many known unknowns in addition to the unknown unknowns to be a ugly duckling.
