I am ephemeral, as is everything and everyone else in this world. Civilizations rise and fall, the ocean tides swell tumultuously and slip away gently, walls are built and walls are torn down. This planet, which arrived in the universe with a bang, born from the celestial particles that humans have not yet begun to comprehend, must one day collapse into itself and return to its original dreamlike quality- wisps of star stuff. Looking up at the sky at night and looking out at sea induce the same reactions- we, as individual human beings, are so small compared to these creations wrought by something bigger, larger, more powerful than us. Perhaps this may be detrimental, knowing that my place in this world is merely a microscopic speck on a globe, a speck that could hardly impact the world in any significant way, but rather, I have come to realize that I am more than that dot, that Something Bigger resides within each of us. Our tiny little bodies are merely humble abodes for our gigantic souls, souls bursting with energy and light, souls made of stars. We each have within our power the ability to shift mountains, to spark revolutions, to shape the world. This notion is what inspires me to aim higher than the sky and bestows on me a fierce hope that my one life can produce everlasting consequences. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed; it continues to be recycled over the passage of time through different states and forms, long after your body has decomposed into the earth. In this way, I am not ephemeral at all- I am eternal.