By: Mishal Rehan
Curiosity is the blessing of the universe, keeping one alive. Curiosity is the curse of the universe, hurling one to their inevitable death. I grew up with guardians who forbid me from questioning the authenticity of what they taught me; I grew up to listen, utter, and obey exactly what they told me. If given the opportunity to probe, I would not know where to begin. My mind racing with thoughts of the past, present, and future, thoughts I could not demonstrate. Stuck within the confines of the glasshouse they had built around my mind, I remember the agony of my soul not being able to breathe, like a fish struggling for life upon cemented land.
House of glass strong as steel, I recalled the utter bliss that coursed through my veins as I had shattered my way out, to chase what haunted me, to seek the truth. I held onto that memory, that fragment of created paradise as my eyes beheld the wide expanse of a wasteland, stretching out all around me. A land of death, of dehydration and fatigue, my shallow breaths accompanying me like a satanic harmony. I had given up the shackles of my comfort to become the wanderer, to achieve the destination of truth that I had so desperately craved.
My purpose did not come easy as I trudged through run-down rock and mineral, feet sinking further down with every step. The sun scorching above me, I reminisced about the evergreen forests I had passed, open fields with glistening streams. What I sought were answers, and how could one hope to seek candor without witnessing what the world had to offer? I chuckled as my skin burned in the desert, my trembling knees finally giving out as I collapsed upon a sea of sand.
There I lay, a mortal flesh with a mortal soul, the strength to get up and move forward ebbing away from within me, like water flowing out of a palm. Breathless, I silently gasped for air, the air that would not come to me as my lungs thrashed and struggled, labored to keep me alive. My eyes facing the sky as the sun shined bright above, yet I was engulfed with darkness all around me. So I closed my eyes, my raging heart slowing to a stop, and that is when the darkness finally revealed to me what I had been searching for.
(Photo from here.)
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