This is the Story of a Valence electron.
He was part of the Atom family. He was different not only from the protons and the neutrons, who ofcourse were very tight, he was different from the other electrons also. He lived on the outer most orbit, furthest away from the core, never in the ‘in-circle”, always an outsider, a cast away. As much as he tried he could not fit. And he tried. A lot. He wore clothes to fit, he spoke a certain way, he pretended to like things, he did things that he thought the core would approve of – but to no avail. All this trying to be who he was not would make him very reactive. He would be told directly or indirectly, why do you react so much, why can’t you be calm. He knew, he had heard somewhere to be noble he would need seven more like him and so that was not to be. He was alone. “You are too negative”, they said. And he was.
He was confused, often. Why was this said as a judgement? And a hard one at that. He did not hear anyone calling the proton, “you are positive”, in that tone, or the neutron as neutral in a disgusting way, so why him?. What was wrong with being negative. He had the same numbers as the other two. He was not less, so why? If anything, it looked like he was the one who did all the moving and shaking. He would be amused, somedays, how the ones who judged him as negative, said it negatively anyway.
Eventually after sometime, he began to buy into this judgement and started to believe it. He began to think there must be something wrong with him. If not, why did the nucleus not contain him like the other two. Why was he an outsider?. Why was he different?. They were special, and loved and he was not.He would never be good enough, he concluded.
He was sad, as he kept going round and round. There was nothing he could do, he felt stuck.
All this alone time that he spent on the outskirts of the atom he also began to see the outside world. He began to feel his own energy increasing and him becoming stronger. At times, to work through his pain and sadness, he would deploy this energy to creative forms, Atleast in his imagination he could escape this pain. He sang, painted, wrote heart wrenching poetry and sometimes read his poetry to the Dark Void outside. Because no one was really interested in listening, on the inside. They wanted to hear positive or neutral things only, and his genre was not that.
The Void heard, it was always there, kind patient non judging. It was very touched and understanding, it could empathise with the valence electrons pain. In return, the Void kept gifting him, more depth, more richness of emotions, more freedom to explore the unknown, more seeing, more truth.
And one day on a dark night when he was sleeping, he heard a strange sound. When you are on the Verge, you often heard unknown sounds. He was a frightened; he had never heard a voice from the void that sounded, like him. Infact, he had never heard any voice that sounded like him. He thought he must be dreaming, and his dreams as friendly as they were, were trying to compensate for this aloneness. Or perhaps this was yet another nightmare. He was anxious.
And yet he had courage. When the voice did not stop, the electron got up, energy coursing through its veins, heart thumping, breath held, he stretched his trembling yet strong hands out, tentatively at first, farther than he had ever held them before, and closed his eyes, no longer able to hold back.. silence
Silence….
And then… it happened. The unexpected, the unthinkable, the magical. His hand was touched and held by another hand. His head was already spinning now it came to a halt, as he saw, another Valence electron from a different atom. His silent tears were flowing freely now mixed with his sweat.
The attraction was instant and evident and strong from both sides. They immediately formed a bond. And it was covalent. Here, no one was big or small, more or less. They were equals, they shared and did not compete – they had no need to. They were the same. He looked at the Void and silently said a thank you. The Void just stood – a Silent witness. There was no big drama no bang. Nothing.
His whole world suddenly exploded. This was a different world. He never could imagine this destiny in his wildest scariest dreams. He was moving Atoms. He, the loner, was making bonds. He finally understood that all this while, this was the plan all along. He was not an outsider, he was outside for a reason. He was the Harbinger. His Purpose was to create bonds and bring the world together – one atom at a time. It all made sense. He was called Valence because he had a valency. He was willing to step and stay on the boundary of both the worlds and bring from that third place, something beautiful.
All this while he looked for belonging, because he thought the nucleus defined him, but he was to realize that infact, he defined the properties of the entire atom.
He began to laugh loudly, the way he remembered laughing long before, he had a really nice laugh. As he realised just how not alone he was, heck his name was VE. He smiled as he realised that actually, he was the chosen one, not the discarded one. His yardstick had been incorrect so far. But now he knew. He was awake and aware
The Valence Electron – had found its true orbit. It was the entire universe.
“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.” Jelaluddin Rumi
Definition: What was eventually written about the Valence Electron.
In chemistry and physics, a valence electron is an electron in an outer shell of an atom that can participate in forming chemical bonds with other atoms. In a single covalent bond, both atoms in the bond contribute one valence electron in order to form a shared pair. The presence of valence electrons can determine the element’s chemical properties and whether it may bond with other elements.
The concept of valence was successful in explaining the molecular structure of many organic compounds. The quest for the underlying causes of valence lead to the modern theories of chemical bonding, including Lewis structures, valence bonding and all the advanced methods of quantum chemistry.
Eventually, He was responsible for furthering the Human understating of literally how the material and non-material world worked .
This piece is dedicated to all those who have at different times, felt and identified with that Valence Electron, inside of us. We are all made of Star dust. And in that knowing we are all equal – and eternally Belong.
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