Catharsis

Esu walked on a road between two villagers on either side of it. One side of his hat was green and the other was red. When he passed them, the villagers got into a big argument over the colour of his hat. "It was green!" One said, "No, it was red!" Said the other.

You hear things like “Jupiter can fit 1633 Earths inside it” but you don’t really know what that means until you’re right in front of the planet and it feels like the marbled clouds are reaching into your brain and playing with it like a slinky.

Again, it was incredibly disorienting but I got better. When I could look at the planet without fainting I began to feel the beginnings of overwhelming awe. The fear of the incomprehensible void behind me felt like a weight on the back of my skull but strangely I found comfort in the gas giant in front of me. Familiar yet so alien. At least I could hold onto the fact that there was something in front of me rather than the endless void.

With time I could put the planet behind me, turning instead to stare into space. No idea where Earth is, the Sun, far far away. This was a strange baptism; plunging myself into the depths of cosmic loneliness. A wonderful exercise during my first few months of being able to fly, teleport, and exist unharmed in the vacuum of space.