It was a grey, dreary day when I got on that plane at 7a.m. I hadn’t slept the previous night. Friends and not-so-friends alike had thrown me a going away bash and we all got very drunk. I didn’t quite understand why they held it, as I was only going away for a month. I suspect they just wanted an excuse to get hammered.

As the plane took off, my stomach stayed on the ground. Taking off was the worst part, but I still loved flying. Something about defying nature. I studied Robert Frost in English as a tween, and he said that you can’t go against nature’s flow. Well, look at me now.

Out the window, I could see the rain falling slower, not yet gathered momentum at this height. And then it happened: the beautiful moment when you pierce the clouds. Coming up out of the cloud a bright beam of light hit me and I was hit by the beauty between the clouds.

If I ever imagined a Heaven, this would be it: the sun peeking over the white foam like a new life, shining on a new beginning.