Sometime while at my friend's house, we got word there was going to be a meteor shower later that night. 2:00 AM was the time. I had never seen a shooting star before, let alone a shower of them falling from the night sky.

Like two excited children the night before Christmas with a naively mischievous plot to do whatever it takes to stay up to catch a glimpse of the big jolly man, we quickly gulp down various caffeinated beverages. Heading out into the brisk night's air, we find two plush patches of Earth to plant ourselves upon, and immediately crane our necks to provide our eyes with the allegedly breathtaking sight that is about to possess our vision for the following moments of the night... and our lives. Now all there is to do is wait.

Just as our necks begin to ache from staring up in such unnatural positions, there it is. And then another, and another. My mind is having trouble comprehending just exactly what I am witnessing. Never in my entire life had I had the privilege of witnessing the lonely night sky light up with such explosions of splendor and mystique. And in a matter of 30 seconds, I had already witnessed it three times.

Sitting there, overwhelmed, in awe, holding my breath, as if nervous to somehow throw off the entire universe's cosmic flow with the release of breath from between my chapped lips, I await the next star's debut across the black stage up above me, so inconceivably far away, that I foolishly assure myself is within my adolescent reach. Just beyond my fingertips...

While awaiting the next star's time to shine, I begin to think. Is someone, anyone, else out there, looking up at his or her night sky, enduring the brisk autumn breeze that leaves miniature hills of excited skin to form on his or her arms, acting as tangible proof that he or she is in fact alive, and not just existing? Is he or she too, wondering if someone else is out there, gazing upon that same star, in the same trance of utter amazement and wonder? Does he or she wish to one day meet me, and possibly share memories with me, perhaps filled with more stargazing or maybe something even greater that neither of us have yet to discover?

But these are more than just stars. Stars are inanimate objects that we learn about in the 6th grade. This is proof that stars are alive… and that they like to dance. Not all stars are stuck in Andromeda’s pre-fixed alignment. These stars dash across the night sky, providing beauty and wonder from afar, no matter how close to me I try to convince myself that they are. Stars are like strangers, loved ones, and those whom I will someday meet, and maybe lose. I fear their sudden disappearance into somewhere unknown.

Even if someone else is out there, thinking about me, or at least, the concept of someone like me, will we ever meet? Will we ever be able to dance together like shooting stars dance across the blackness of the sky, painting a previously bleak background with colors of passion and life? Where they land is unknown. Supposedly, they just burn up in the atmosphere, but as I sit upon that plush seat on the Earth, I discover where those stars land. No, not into some unlivable black void of nothingness, where they cannot provide happiness or awe to a single soul. Rather, they land in the watcher's soul, reviving it from its once jaded existence and coloring it in passionate strokes of every color of every life it has ever touched, and showing him or her what it means to be alive. Of course, it is up to the watcher if he or she wishes to let that star find a permanent residence in his or her soul, but that star certainly does try. With every cosmic explosion of light and brilliance, it dances its way further and further into the watcher's soul, as well as the other watcher's soul, on the opposite side of the earth, filling them with the same beautiful cosmic energy and light that will one day unite them and allow them to share beautiful memories together of greater things that they have not yet discovered; they are soul mates, paired by the very stars above their very own adolescent reaches.

We can all be soul mates on this Earth. In fact, that is the stars’ only wish. The only thing we have to do is witness the stars dance, and be more than willing to dance along with them.