Landing is not easy. I travel for what feels like an eternity through a tunnel of magnificent colors, light, and sound whirring together in a dazzling show. I am disembodied. Just a wave of light and energy soaring through the universe. The tearing from the body is the hardest part. It is like carving the skin off a dead animal. We were attached. It was my faithful servant. I didn’t want to let go. I watched our bodies dissolve into dust and then the tunneling started.

It seems like there is no destination, so I surrender to the journey. What’s on the other side, I don’t know. I hope it’s my family, smiling and still shining. I promise myself I will never forget that moment of reckoning.

A compression starts at the bottom of the tunnel. It gets narrower. I feel like I’m being squeezed from all sides. There is so much pressure, like in an airplane when you drop below a certain altitude. The colors and sounds begin to dim. The speed at which I’m traveling increases. I’m flying now. Soaring. I feel the destination approaching and brace myself for impact. Faster, until I lose my sense of self. Thoughtless. Formless. Just forward. Pushing. Quicker. Until the tunnel starts collapsing. I am a wave of emotion now. Fear, anxiety, turmoil.

Then plop! I emerge on the other side. I keep my eyes shut tightly, afraid to see where I have landed. A soothing voice comes to me from the distance. Miles away but getting closer and closer until it’s right in my ear.

“Echo, dear, welcome back. It’s OK, you can open your eyes. The first time is always a bit jarring.”

I open my left eye just enough to get a peek at who is talking to me. When Dean Harrison’s Mr. Spock face is revealed, both my eyes pop open and I reach my arms around her neck. I am thrilled to see her after everything that just happened. She grants me her neck but does not wrap her arms around me like a normal person. Still a weirdo, I say to myself.