Birds

Ever since I was a little boy, I have dreamed about flying. Not flying in a plane or in a hot air balloon but like Peter Pan does. I’ve tried to go up in a hot air balloon, in a plane or a simulator but none of them gave me what I had hoped to gain from flying. None of these gave me the freedom that I expect to get when I’m flying high in the sky. I have always wished I could just jump out of a twenty-story building and simply fly off in any direction I wish. When I’m bored, when I want some peace or simply to get to where I want to go, I’d start flying. Most people found this weird and others said that I was a dreamer. Yet, to this day, my biggest hope is to be able to fly out of my balcony and touch the clouds. To see the whole world beneath me and to level with the birds as they fly to lands across the sea has been my dream.

Reading books in which men flew using different techniques. I saw the men from Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy describe it as “falling but not touching the ground.” I saw in television shows where men flew faster than the speed of light. I calculated the time it would take me to travel to cities if I were able to fly. Sometimes I wished I could just fly away in the middle of a mind-numbing conversation; just simply say, “Why bother?” and fly out the closest window. I wished to feel as free as birds do. With nothing to bind you, no responsibilities, five thousand meters above the ground in the cold sky I wanted to let go of everything and just fly.

Yet the closest I have gotten to any of this in my dreams. I have flown above buildings, above trees and travelled across the sea to a new land. It was all gone when I woke up in the morning. Yet still there remained an inkling feeling that I it would be the day I flew away. Maybe in the future my genes will be altered in a terrible nuclear accident and I will be able to fly. But until that day, my feet will touch the ground and I will tread the path that leads to where I am supposed to be.