I stood in the midst of an ice cap and I looked to the sun.

Rays of white light cut through the meager cloud cover and touched upon my face. I could feel the beginning of strength burning in my body. I felt nervous, frightened, elated. I couldn't stop myself from turning and looking towards the semi-bright, warm sun.

I walked. I walked and I walked and I walked until I came to the edge of a cliff.

There, the sun was within my grasp. There, the warm rays of a white, winter sun burned through me like liquid metal, nourishing and healing. I brought my feet together, facing the bright sun.

I stretched out my arms, as if I could hold the sun in my arms. My palms faced outwards, towards the bright ball of warmth and life. I turned my head to the sky and looked up at the white, slow moving clouds. A shudder of awe went through my body, and my eyes closed. Something incredible was about to happen.

For a moment longer I stood there, and then I tipped forwards and fell off the edge.

In freefall, the icy, glacial wind whipped past my ears with the force of a hurricane. My palms remained outstretched and the only noticeable change was the slight arch of my back. Life poured into my veins and I took a breath for the first real time in my life. My body shook with excitement and a desire to move, to go to action, to live!

I opened my eyes, and my body went parallel with the ground at 750 miles per hour. Snow flew out of my way, the wind cutting across my body as my arms straightened themselves out in front of me, fists clenched. I yelled at the top of my lungs, and I flew straight upwards in a single moment.

Mach 1 passed, Mach 2 passed, Mach 3 passed, Mach 4 passed. The clouds flew out of the way as I carved a path straight for the source of my life, the sun. The sky grew darker the higher I got, the faster I moved. I broke Mach 5. When I hit Mach 6, I had reached the edge of the troposphere.

I floated on the edge of space, the sun glaring in its full brilliance on my face. I could feel my cape flow behind me in zero gravity. The sun was heavenly, beautiful, warm. On the edge of space I floated, just out of reach of the suffocation of space but just out of reach of Earth's gravity.

I heard my heart in my ears, I felt the blood in my veins.

This is what freedom is, I said to myself. This is what life is.