A.

Have you ever stood by, helpless, while what you thought were the central features of your life just slipped, disappeared into the bottomless pit that lies beyond the limits of the earth as it was thought of before Columbus? Home, relationships, dreams and ambitions plummeting towards the open mouth of nothingness... The void is a scary thing, paradoxically full of emptiness and possibility. Quite a sight that! Some people would say it's one of life's formative experiences but I'm ready to bet all I've lost that the very same people pray they never have to go through it.

Of course, you'll try to clutch at straws, attempt to preserve whatever you can because these things define you, or so you think. Yet, aspirations and dreams are slippery little buggers. They will not be held and so down they go with the love that you had for people you didn't quite know and the desire you had for a future that didn't quite suit you and the hope you had for a life you couldn't quite envisage.

Only then, slack-jawed and bug-eyed, do you get to scream, shout and curse until your lungs are empty and burning. Only then do you get to cry until your eyes are raw and your whole body shakes with the pain of trying to keep what must be lost. Only then do you see that you have been stripped of protective layers of affection, belief and trust. Only then can you see that you're still there, blurry and sad, but still there.

Still there, faced with all that emptiness, all that potential. Still there, lighter of all these expectations; preempted regrets, really. Still there, capable of looking into the void and seeing that you will not fall after all. Still there, capable of knowing people you have not yet loved and finding a future suitable to your desires and envisaging a life filled with hope.

Your life, the aspirations and dreams that you make out of what you once thought was emptiness.