the same stars

9:47pm

it’s astonishing that the same constellations i am looking at right now are unchanged, the exact stars i spent hours tracing as a child.

but somehow, they seem brighter now. or maybe i just see them differently. back then, they were just dots in the sky, something to connect, something to name. now, they feel like reminders. of time passing. of how much has changed even when the stars haven’t.

i do miss being that kid. lying in the grass, making up stories about the big dipper, feeling like the world was so big but still small enough to understand. back when growing up felt like some far off thing, not something i was already in the middle of.

but i don’t want to go back. not really. because now the world is bigger, messier, more complicated (yes) but also full of possibility. the kind i couldn’t even grasp or imagine back then. the stars aren’t just something to trace anymore, they’re something to reach for.