They're all alike...

I think the title of this post is probably my favorite line I've ever written. Now, I don't claim to have coined the phrase, but there was one time, in seventh grade, when I put it to particularly good use. At least, I think so!

The assignment was to write a story describing something. I was already well-unhinged (or imaginative, if you're of a kinder bent) by the age of twelve; it took only a moment for me to reject an opening line like, "My dog is brown and..."

Instead I described a snowstorm in the first person, from the point-of-view of one snowflake preparing to leap bravely from the clouds. He was part of an invading army of paratroopers mounting an assault upon a particular red-leaf maple tree. I recorded his thoughts and experiences - from the seconds preceding his jump, to his jubilation upon actually landing on the target tree, and ending with his inevitable cry, "I'm mellll....!" Somewhere between leap and landing he was jostled by another descending snowflake.

"They're all alike," he declared indignantly.

I loved that line so very much, but I was afraid that the rest of the class wouldn't catch the irony, so the final version read, "Snowflakes are all supposed to be different, but they're all alike." I never liked that adaptation as much, but it's what I submitted. It felt like I spoiled a good joke by clumsily explaining the punch line.

To this day I am plagued by two questions:

1) Should I have trusted my first thought and left the line the way I liked it best?

2) Why the heck do I still worry about question No. 1?