When I was six years old, the burning question on my brain was, Are we trapped here? I posed this question to my mom one day, and she confirmed my worst fears. Apparently my six year old mind was seeking out something beyond planet Earth. For some reason, it was quite a shock for me to discover that humans could only leave earth on a spaceship. It didn’t take long for me to transform my room into a miniature galaxy. All I had to do was ask for the kit for Christmas. Can you imagine my excitement? The Milky Way came in a box, with instructions! Soon I had cleared all my “old” toys out of the way and strung the planets in order from wall to wall. I even put those plastic glow-in-the-dark stars up on my ceiling. At night, I would lay there and count them. It wasn’t impossible to count all the stars in my sky (there were 37 until they started falling off). My 10x12 foot galaxy was a sanctuary. I was a little bummed about the whole gravity issue, but I got over it. I was in space.
The feeling of being trapped somewhere still creates that horrible fluttering sensation somewhere inside my stomach. It feels like a thousand startled birds all deciding to lift off into the sky at the same time.
To this day, I am jealous of anything that has wings.
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