April 24, 2014

Last night I lay awake in my  Dormitory, seemingly unable to sleep. I tossed and turned in my bed for what seemed like hours, and yet it was only better more than 45 minutes. I could take it no longer, I had to get out.

I dressed quickly, and let my mind wander as my feet seemed determined to take me where they will. I soon found myself on top of the Astronomy Tower staring up at the vast empty sky. Stars glittered like diamonds in a vast black wasteland, creating shapes and stories within my mind brought on from my study of the constellations. Oddly, I found myself thinking of a dismal cave, far beneath the earth where beautiful gleaming jewels lay waiting for some soul to claim them.

My mind was drawn by a flash of light striking across the sky, almost like lightning or a flash of fire. As I stood there, dazed, I could not helped but feel awed and horribly small beneath this vast night sky, whose mysteries were far from revealed, and perhaps, never would be.

I'm not sure how long I lay there, leaned up against the cold stone of the castle staring up at the night sky as the meteor shower blasted above me, the individual comets completely careless and ignorant of anything else but their destined path. But I knew that when I found myself again, I had seemed to have dozed off, and dawn was soon peaking lightly over far horizon, splattering the sky with shades of dark purple and crimson red. It almost seemed as if the very earth itself was bleeding as the sky soon began to grow lighter and lighter as the sun followed it's ever monotonous trek across the sky, though I knew it was really the Earth itself that was moving.

I slowly stood, shaking the stiffness and slight cold from my limbs as I made my way drearily back down to the Dormitories for some much needed rest. I had been oddly humbled by this experience and still when the visions come to my eyes i feel at a loss for words, for none can describe the beauty of which I have seen. And I know that I shall never forget it for as long as I live.

As I sit here writing down these thoughts to try and put them to paper and give them some small shred of proper justice, I cannot help but remember the words my Grandmother once spoke to me as a child before her passing.

Dum spiro,spero.

As I breath, I hope.

I can only hope that I live up to the expectations that my family has of me, and that I can make my ancestors proud, and also, that one day, my own decedents will be proud to call me of their blood.