I wanted to float among the stars, adrift and alone. That was all I could think about, past a certain point. To ask them if they knew the way home, to feel the warmth of their breath on my skin as they answered. To take the sky from the Earth, knowing that I’d take better care of it then they ever had.

My eyes were on the sky for so long that I had forgotten how beautiful the ground looked. And now, here in the vacuum of the space that I’d fought so high to climb into, I realize that there had been a beauty laying underneath my feet unnoticed the entire time.

Did you realize how beautiful the Earth looked from here? Or did you see the beauty for what it was up close? Was that why you didn’t want me to leave?

I love you., I whisper, and wonder if you’d ever hear. Years later, would the sound of it tickle your ears? Would you look to the sky and wonder if I made it? Would it make you sad or happy that I did?

I’d wanted you to see this.