just as the stars do

I reached up and grabbed hold of one, a star. I was hesitant thinking it would be too hot but was surprised to find it was cool, it spun softly in my hand. As I reached I realized the stars looked like tiny pinpricks in the sky, there to make sure we had enough air to breathe. I took a deep breath and grabbed another star, and just like that, I was using them as footholds. As I climbed as fast as I could, I was passing through the constellations. I passed Cassiopeia. I had my foot stuck in Orion’s belt. I was climbing further and further away from the Earth. Where was I going? Only the stars knew.

I started to pass the moon and saw the American Flag waving to me. I whistled to let the rover know he wasn’t alone. I was climbing so fast I almost didn’t notice that the stars were starting to burn brighter. I had so many questions for the stars, so many things to ask. So many things I didn’t realize I didn’t know to ask. I remember wondering why I could breathe, and hearing the stars giggle. It didn’t take long for me to realize why.

I continued on my journey, I was about to make it past the Milky Way. The hazy band of light hung onto our galaxy lazily. Our galaxy, just one of many galaxies in the universe. I wanted to try and distinguish if the galaxy was expanding or shrinking. My semi-human eye was unable to determine the truth. I finally made it to the edge of our solar system, the arm of the Milky Way. The Milky Way extended to Satigariuss. My sign. I felt infinite at that moment. I realized I was outside of the sun’s reach at this point and was astonished that I still felt almost nothing.

I continued my odyssey in the heavens and beyond. I wondered what I would find. How much more was there to see? How much could be revealed to me? I wondered more and more if my existence was merely an accident, however, I could tell from the design of this sky, my playground that nothing was on accident. My hands were starting to glow, just as the stars did. And every time I touched another star my hands would glow more. The glow was distal to my body, however, it was growing up in my arms. Almost as if I was being consumed by the stars. How fitting, we are but stardust anyways.

My upper arms and now my thighs were also illuminated by this point. I was heading to the closest galaxy I knew, Andromeda. It was a cacophony of lights and colors, some I had no reference point of naming. I realized I would never make it, regardless of the light-years I had traveled at this point. I was but a star myself, and I would supernova soon. That was why I was climbing the stars, to relieve Earth of the fate of my supernova. It was at that moment I realized I hadn’t seen the other part of me yet. I stopped on the Northern Star, and turned around and saw it; Sagittarius A. Technically I didn’t see it, I saw how it influenced the stars around it, it was hard to miss. How fitting my sign was the name of the black hole at the center of my very own galaxy. Was this all an allegory for life? That we can either be good or bad? I shook that thought from my head. No, the universe does not think in absolutes. Instead, the idea should be, can humans either be chaotic or peaceful? Existence or nonexistence? Light or the absence thereof? How do we influence each other much like the planets, stars, and other pieces of the universe?

I stood there on the Northern Star and took a moment to see my solar system. My galaxy and my black hole. I knew what I had to do to save Earth from my supernova. I had to get to the event horizon of Sagittarius A, or stay where I was and become a beckon, or relic in the sky. Once I made that decision I wouldn’t be able to escape the event horizon. In fact, there was almost no chance of escaping the spaghettification of getting to the black hole anyway. The only thing not illuminated was my face. I decided to accept fate as it were. I resigned myself to the light, and within moments I exploded and fragments of my stardust were scattered around the universe. My new scattered elements would become the Sagittarius constellation, which ironically had existed at the same time as my ascent into the sky, as time is relative here and much of the time folds on itself. Or so the stars like to say. My story of escaping the world to save it from my supernova would be passed on for generations, known as Astrology, and my sign would forever reside in the sky. Just as my brothers and sisters had, the zodiacs existed as metaphors for those who come after us. A constant reminder that time is relative, that most things are not what they appear to be, and soundly we were never alone in the world. All one had to do was look up to the stars, and they would know, just as the stars always do.