Some Second Person Fun

~Just a thought I had in math class, scribbled down and expanded upon later. Enjoy!~

Imagine yourself walking through a dark cave. 

People have told you that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but you’ve been walking for so long in the darkness that you don’t believe it anymore. You’ve actually come to embrace the darkness- it’s comfortable, familiar. You feel safe knowing that it’s the same dangerous unknown you’ve been walking through for as long as you can remember. You don’t even know how to think about the possibility of seeing light anymore. It’s incomprehensible. You know somewhere in the back of your mind that there’s a chance, but you know more that you’re too far gone. You yearn for the darkness. You trip through, stumbling over unexpected rocks and boulders that pop up when you least anticipate them. Every once in a while, a haunting echo of the way things used to be sneaks into your ear, reminding you of how fantastic life in the light once was. You try to ignore the occasional dampness from the reality that seeps into your shoes. It’s easy to shove that in the back of your mind. After all, you’re not sure what’s really real anymore. Why not question your sense of touch too? 

All of the sudden, a burst of realization comes bursting through the cave. It’s the strongest feeling you’ve had in a while. It scares you. It hurts you. You find yourself crying at the rawness inside of you that has suddenly burst outward. And yet, as the pain is tearing through the cave, you feel a little something beginning to bubble forth. You start to run- anything away to get away from this sensation. As you run forward, you trip and go sprawling onto the floor of the cave. But where you expected to find a rock and a hard place, there is only the shock of water. Instead of an abrasion and the continuation of your journey, you find that falling into this pool may be the worst injury the cave has brought to you. You sink towards where the bottom is supposed to be, feeling as empty as you’ve ever felt. 

But just as you begin to close your eyes and succumb, there’s a burst of light, and something dives into the pool after you. You realize the rescuer itself is the light. It reaches out, grabs you and pulls you upwards, away from the darkness and into the bright, shocking light. It’s an unknown force that rescued you and it remains unknowable as it energizes you, dries you off and injects you with the golden light. As you are taking your first cleansing breath in ages, it zips away as fast as it appeared. As it does, in the brilliant trail of hope left behind, you notice a glow coming in the distance. You think back, remembering sinking into the cold water. It felt like the world was ending. Now, watching the glow approach, you see: it’s just beginning. 

Your eyes grow wide, your heart pounds with anticipation and the glow washes over you. With a dazzling burst of color, the cave of darkness you’ve been wandering through for so long explodes into color and life. You see that the cave is no cave at all, but rather a tropical paradise with waterfalls, flowers so exquisite they look fake and birds of every hue imaginable. It’s the world, the whole wide world, and it is good, and it is open to you, and it is yours to take. You realize that this hasn’t been hidden from you, no. Your own blindness has been holding you back; you were blind but now you see. And what you see. It’s paradise, it’s Eden, it’s heaven. It’s free and there for you. Music blasts through the sweet, fragrant air as you vow never to close your eyes again. Your face tilts up to meet the sun as you smile with sheer joy, spread your arms wide in triumph and take your first step forward into the light of the new world. You are ready to live.

This is what it’s like to get over someone.