She wanted to fly, but the world told her no. She wanted to breathe and it lit a fire snuffing her out. She wanted to stand but the ceiling was too low. So in turn, she climbed, learned to breathe through the fire, and most importantly, broke the ceiling.
It took time. Time, she wasn't sure she had. She had to teach herself that falling was ok. That the bruises would heal. That the scabs may leave scars but the pain wasn't permanent. Climbing was hard, it took every muscle, every bone in her body. Her brain tried convincing her to give up a few times. She ignored it. If she stayed on the ground she would die. If she fell from too high, yes she would also die. But that death would have meant so much more than if she cried and stayed where she started. So she kept going. She learned. She cried. She fell. She wavered. She put aside her fear and she kept climbing.
The fire lit by the world, an enemy as much as the gravity holding her down. Her lungs failed in every way possible to get the needed oxygen. She was suffocating from the toxins caught in the smoke. The pollution of her world was entering her lungs, filling them up, and at first, there was nothing she could do. She would have been done for had she not adapted. She adapted out of necessity. The necessity that she wanted to breathe. In a way that she would not have to worry about what she was letting in. So she taught herself something important. She taught herself how to turn that fire that was killing her into something better. She learned how to change it from the killing and toxic being that it was and turned it into warmth and comfort. She changed the meaning of the fire and it no longer was an enemy, but instead a friend. The fire that once burned around her, hurting her inside and out now became her shield to all the other dangers she faced. She took solace in the fire that almost killed her because without it the cold nights would only seem bleaker and with the altitude, she was reaching, she was going to need all she could get.
The time had finally come for that ceiling to be nothing more than a doorway. She didn't know what the doorway would lead to, but by the time she reached the ceiling, all she knew was that she wanted to keep going. But there was an important question she needed to ask herself, was she strong enough to break through or even strong enough to face whatever was past it? The ceiling was the capacity the world had given her. It was her limit. Supposedly.
When she reached the ceiling, she knew it. She wanted to push past her limit. She wanted to become more. So she did. She used her climbing skills to hold on for dear life as she punched and kicked at the ceiling. She used the fire to keep her warm as the cold winds failed to make her fall. She used the fire as comfort on the nights that she felt like just letting go. She almost fell a few times, but she wasn't going to let the world win. No, not then, not now, not ever. So she held on for dear life, she took a deep breath and broke a hole through the ceiling.
Once she saw what was past the ceiling, a feeling of wonder, excitement, and just a bit of fear overcame her. She saw, all around her, so many more obstacles but with each obstacle, there were just as many steps that lead higher and higher. She knew the second her eyes looked up around her, she was free. Free to choose her own limits, her breaking points. She didn't know how high they would take her but, she did know that she was going to keep climbing,
