How it Feels Before you Fall.

I allowed myself the splendor of flying too close to the sun, much like Icarus, only once. It was an incredible experience. Invigorating, yet deceptive. The higher you go the farther away from the sun you are. Its warmth can not be felt over the bitter cold atmosphere. Wetness stings your face and freezes as the thinning climate clings to your blue-tinted skin.

There is no air to breathe in when you're this high up. Even as the winds rip past you in a tremendous maelstrom your lungs burn from the lack of oxygen, but I couldn't stop. I had to know. I was up this high to do one thing. Test my limits. I had drifted up past tall buildings and I had skimmed mountain tops, I had felt the thin air bite at me before, but never like this. This was the Universe's way of saying stop. You have gone as far as humanly possible. Only humans, normal everyday walking on two legs humans, they couldn't fly. I could. And so I pushed farther on.

It's a funny feeling when you're propelling through the clouds. How silent the world below seems when the vapors around rumble and churn. Friction and electricity collide in great shows of testosterone-filled rage as they shift in and out of each other. You learn to fly fast and be ready. At any moment a colossal storm front can amass around you. These Deadly tempests devour everything in their path growing fat with gluttonous hunger.

The higher up I got the more it became evident that I too would fail in my attempts to reach the sun. Only I had no wax and feathered wings fashioned to my back. I had no wings at all. Instead, I had a great longing, an emptiness, and a lightness that I felt in my bones. I had a heart that would soon stop beating. Lungs that were about to explode. I had reached my limit.

I remember looking up into the brightness of the open empty sky and marveling at how vast the world really was. If only everyone could see the view from up here.

How insignificant it all is when the world is below you. I reached my hand out one last time hoping to feel something from the ball of burning gas that had brought me farther and higher than any other human before the darkness consumed me and I began my long descent.