Helios
"Gotta get closer to the sun."
Words I've lived by. My entire reason for being.
From the earliest of my memories, I recall seeing that glorious, great globe of gold, glimmering down on this dark, shrouded world. I knew something personal. Something the sun and I would share with no other. We are one.
My early life was spent daydreaming, fascinated by the marvel of its light. It wasn't until I was about 12 years old that I realized I had to get my head out of the clouds.
I worked studiously. Every shred of schoolwork, all of the filler assignments. I gave every bit of it my all.
"It's so cute," people would say before ruffling my hair with their dingy, condescending fingers "all little boys want to be a spaceman, don't they?"
Well this was different. I didn't want to be an astronaut, I was going to be an astronaut. What I wanted back then, and still to this day, is far greater than some exploratory science. Ascension.
I worked tirelessly through my late teens and early twenties. My parents had some money put aside for my education, but it wouldn't be enough. I had to master engineering and physics, at the least. I had to stand out in the crowd. And I did.
Finally chosen, I knew it had little to do with all the effort, all the slaving away. It was destiny. Fated to be.
This is the last piece of terrestrial communication that I'll ever create. The last remnant of my human condition.
Currently, no one's the wiser. Not the few undeserving souls with me on this shuttle, not mission control, not my family or friends.
I'm going to transcend, to become so grossly incandescent as to reach godhood. My parents named me Kevin, but itβs a false moniker.
My name is Helios, and I have one human thought left. One last concept buzzing in my brain, as I prepare to entwine my energy with destiny.
Gotta get closer to the sun.
By: Taylor, aka Tewahway