The First

Alright.

I was the perfect definition of a couch potato. I mean, I used to hate everything related to outdoors; sports, dancing, the beach, or anything else that could make me sweat. I was practically a vampire. I'd rather watch movies, or surf the web and cuddle with my pillows and read books even on a perfect weather. Sure, I could risk going out at night to get drunk and go home at dawn. But please, when the sun is up, expect me to be buried in my sheets. I'm that lazy, I think.

Before, it was totally fine. My room was my comfort zone, every thing else was just plain drama or senseless. Eventually, it got boring. Doing nothing was really tiring.

You could say that I snapped out of the bubble, or a monster smacked me right in my gut. I knew that I wanted change. The Mayans might have been wrong in predicting the end of the world, but 2012 sure ended a lot of significant things in my life. Old habits ended, feelings died. I quit my boring job and volunteered to be deployed somewhere nobody thought I would ever go, or do things I would never have done. I did not become a superhero or a pop star. Nonetheless, the people around me were surprised but no one was ever more shocked than myself. That should be the first omen of the greatness coming.

That's where it all started. I went to places. I met someone who helped me see the beauty and depth in all things.

That was when I started to see that I had just mastered the art of breathing and exhaling and just not dying but still not living. That was the moment when I started to realize gradually the worth of life. That was the moment that I started to believe that life—as cliche-ish as it may seem— is indeed beautiful.