I was utterly hypnotized by the dancing colours almost frozen to the rails. All the roars in the surrounding area turned into muffled noises and disappeared—it was as if I was there alone and deaf to the noise. My body was glued to the iron fence but not from fear of falling into the potentially snake-infested foliage below, but from feeling like a helium balloon.

An emotion that I’d never felt before arriving in Australia but had become prominent here was back. It overtook everything, so light, warm, and fuzzy. It was addictive, and I was becoming hooked on it.

Is this what happiness actually feels like? asked an inner voice in a whisper as the realisation of this moment sank in.

To others, this might not be anything too special, but for me, there was no bigger accomplishment. For twenty-six years, life was a prison in a reality I wanted no part of, but these past couple of weeks, I’d felt alive, free of societies shackles, and dare I say it… genuinely happy. Finally living life, not just existing in it and the real start of this new reality. Where I’m from, people like me take to the bottle or stick needles in their veins for escape, then there are those who simply just exist through life but don’t live it. As much as I hated that life, that’s what I did—just floated through it, simply existing.

Forget about that, it’s in the past, you don’t need to think of it again—look at this, dreamt of this moment my entire life—shut up and enjoy it…