The first thing I remember is the heat, round me, on me, inside me.

Red poured over me eyes,

blinding me. Only later did I learn that it was the hot magma that gave birth to me. The other
rocks around me told me. They were there longer than me, it was incredible, the stories they told;
of magma shooting out of a humongous volcano towering over us. We called her Mama
Volcano. I didn’t believe them at first, but then I saw it myself. The hot liquid shooting out, a
beautiful, mesmerizing yet dangerous display of fire. At first nothing happened but after a while
the hot liquid solidified and formed into new Igneous rocks We all looked different, some light
in color, some dark, some heavier and some light. I thought it was beautiful. I was a handsome
Obsidian rock. We also voted for the names of the new rocks. The name given to me was Oskar.
We lived on an island near the ocean, not many visitors there. I was a bit lonely, but the older
rocks kept me company. The older wiser ones seemed to have mystical powers and knowledge.
They told me of composition and density. Complete nonsense to my ears. One mystical rock told
me I was made of many minerals, with many funny names. Potassium feldspar, quartz, biotite,
amphibole feldspar. It was a happy life in our little rock colony, but soon enough bad things
started happening. Think not even the elder rocks could have predicted. A terrible amount of
water fell down on us, beating hard. The nearby ocean rose in anger, and crashed into us, sending
me and the other rocks tumbling into each other. It was the scariest storm I’ve ever seen. Parts of
us broke off, and scattered around. My body was everywhere, it hurt a lot. Suddenly I didn’t feel
so lucky to be living in that rock colony. Soon the waves carried all my parts and out into the
ocean. We floated for months, years maybe. I met many other broken up rocks like me.
Sediments we called ourselves. Finally I was spit out onto another shore. This one wasn’t as nice
as the first one, I missed Mama Volcano. Suddenly more sediments fell on top off me, and then
more and more until I was deep on the lowest layer of the pile. More layers of sediments piled up
on me and I was pushed further down into the ground. This was the most boring part of my life, I
did nothing for a very long time. Just sitting there alone with my thoughts, and I didn’t even
know that much so I was pretty limited on what I could think about. It was during that time
where I decided to write this autobiography. So many sediments piled up that I was squeezed
very tight against all the other sediments. I thought I’d be broken up forever, but soon enough
minerals that were around us cemented me back together. I was back to a full rock. A
sedimentary rock, the minerals told me. I guess the elder rocks were telling the truth, minerals
are real. Weird how I couldn’t speak to them until now. I was a clastic siltstone, apparently. I
was still pretty suspicious of these minerals, and if they were telling me the truth. I thought I’d be
a sedimentary rock forever, but I was proved wrong. As I was further pushed down toward the
center of the earth, and other sediments became sedimentary rocks I felt an old sensation. Heat. It
was a similar heat that I felt when I was first born. Was this it? Was I coming back to Mama
Volcano? Alas, it was not my mother. Instead it was an unknown entity exerting the heat. I never
got close enough to ask its name. The closer I got the more I changed. I felt both constricted, yet
growing. Crystals started to appear and appear on me. I felt even more beautiful than ever before.
I could now talk to the crystals as well. They called me Gneiss, I tried to tell them my name was
Oskar, but they just kept repeating the word Gneiss. I guess crystals are pretty, but not that smart.
I was a foliated metamorphic rock at this point. But I still longed for my old Igneous form. Over
the years I changed into many different types of rocks, learned about all the minerals and rock
types. Now I’m living back with a new Mama Volcano, enjoying my life as an author.