North Star

The wind howls ferociously, causing the blanket of snow to swirl around me like an endless white curtain. I'm lost. I've been walking aimlessly for hours, my feet buried in the soft snow, my hands numb from the cold. The sky is closed, the horizon vanished. There is no path, no direction. All I see is white, and all I feel is the icy vastness threatening to swallow me at any moment. Exhaustion weighs heavily on my bones, but I cannot afford to stop. If I do, I know I won't be able to get back up.

Strangely enough, this feeling is quite familiar to me. I feel as lost in life as I do in this white desert. I've always let myself be carried by the winds of chance, never finding a fixed direction. And I never did anything to change it. I simply kept putting one foot in front of the other without even thinking about where I was going. Come to think of it, it's an excellent way to travel through time into the future. You just keep putting one foot in front of the other without thinking, and before you know it, years have passed in the blink of an eye. Just like now, where time seems to have stopped—only the white and emptiness surround me.

I don't know if I can keep going. I'm exhausted and drifting aimlessly. Right now, the soft snowy ground seems so inviting... Yeah, maybe I'll lie down for a bit. Besides, what's the point in moving forward? Even if I find my way back, or find some shelter, what will happen next? I'll return to my monotonous life and continue to feel lost. I won't even notice the years passing by. So, what's the difference between continuing or just staying here? The end result is the same. Yeah, I'll lie down here for a while... Just to rest my eyes...

The snow slowly wraps around me. I can no longer tell where my body ends and the endless white begins. I feel myself disappearing, consumed by this frozen vastness. A strange calm surrounds me, a peace that calls to me.

The cold doesn't seem so bad anymore.

But suddenly, as if by a miracle, the sky begins to clear. Through the thick clouds, a faint but steady light emerges. I lift my head, and above me is the North Star. I remember something I once heard: the North Star is always fixed, the true north. Those who follow it never get lost. For the first time in hours, I have something to hold on to. A direction, a way out. Oddly enough, the star seems brighter than I had imagined.

It's ironic how things have never been simpler than at this difficult moment, which might just be my last. I keep doing what I've always done: simply putting one foot in front of the other. But this time it's different. This time I have a purpose: to survive. I don't need grand answers or complex philosophies. I just need to keep moving, guided by the star. Clinging to this fragile thread of hope feels strange, especially in the middle of the storm, but in a way, it grounds me. Confidence returns, slowly, like warmth in frozen fingers. Perhaps I've always known what to do, but it took this frozen solitude to remind me.

Finally, I see a light in the distance. I'm not sure if my eyes are playing tricks on me. I'm truly at my limit. In fact, I think I've given everything I have to come this far. I hope what I'm seeing is real. I'll try to get there. I HAVE to get there. Each step is harder than the last. Any step could be my last. My legs are still trembling, but not from the cold anymore: it's from weakness. But I can't give up now, not when I'm so close. It looks like a cabin. And the light it emits... it's different, almost ethereal, and so inviting. It's a warm, welcoming light, brighter than a fireplace's flame. I feel inexorably drawn to it.

I confess, I don't remember well what happened next. It seems that all my senses shut down to conserve strength, guiding me purely by instinct and will to reach that place. But I made it. I'm in the cabin. I feel happy. I feel... light. Like a feather, as if I left a burden somewhere behind me in the snow. I look back and all I see is a distant sea of white. The cold stayed outside, but it feels as though a part of me remained out there with it. Strangely, I now realize how simple life can be when you find a direction.

Inside the cabin, the light envelops me completely, so warm, so soothing. I feel at peace. Now, I know that whenever I lose my way again, just as I did here, all I need to do is find my own "North Star"—my purpose—and follow it with the same determination.