• I leaned precariously over an edge, hundreds of meters high. Short gusts of wind twirled around my head-it was a rollercoaster ride for the leaves. I caught a faded golden leaf in my outstretched hand, its tip bent and crumpled. I smiled softly to myself as I watched it slowly flutter downwards, remembering why I came to this isolated, peaceful place. I glanced around slowly, taking in everything around me. The graceful hawks below me, the winds chiming noise rustling the mountain tops life. The view in front of me, maybe the last thing I would ever see if this went wrong. The purple gorse bushes, the scattered boulders, a small, rippling stream-the view of a peaceful world.

    I moved forward, so that my toes were not on solid land. Sending stones and dirt tumbling down the mountainside. I stretched slowly, removing all kinks from my body. I couldn’t wait to try this out.

    Up here I wasn’t different, up here there was just me where my difference didn’t matter. Up here, I was as free as those hawks below me. Up here, it was where my new life begins.

    I took a deep breath…..and stepped off the cliff. I felt the wind playing with my loose hair, tugging at my clothes. I felt a whistling sound in my ears, and I laughed.

    I laughed as I stretched out my pearl white wings with black and red tipped feathers, I laughed as I joined the hawks in their swooping and swirling dance, I laughed because I was free as I could finally be me.