One miserable day, when the rain poured thunderously outside, I sat in my new house in my new room. I missed the old place, where my friends were, where we had so much fun, even though it had only been one day since we moved. I lay in bed, waiting in the darkness, dreading for the morning to come. I was anxious and just wanted to go back to my old friends! It was no use now. It was too late. My parents had to move for work.

Morning came, I pleaded with my parents not to make me go to school, but to no avail. When we arrived at my new school, I felt a shiver down my spine as I gulped for reassurance. As slow as a snail, I entered, everyone stared at me . I was flustered as I heard people muttering and whispering around the great hall. Suddenly, a cruel, colossal and crushing woman stomped over to me hastily. She was steely and loomed over me ominously and greeted me quite unpleasantly. “Sit down child and be quiet!” bellowed the woman in an abrasive voice.

As the days went on, the sadness gnawed further into me. It was torture. I was teased and bullied and never befriended nor asked to participate. This experience of isolation continued, until one day when I was late going home from school. In desperate hope for some salvation, I looked up to take in the beauty of the night sky. It was so different from the usually bustling, cloud-covered night sky in the city that I used to see. It was love at first sight.

From then on I realised loneliness was only in the eye of the beholder and instead of being weighed down by my experiences in this unfamiliar town. I should see things  from the perspective of the grander universe. I most likely was not alone out there after all. Maybe someone similar to myself, on a different planet, was searching the night sky for friendship too. 

The evocative night scene made me feel like The Little Prince from the story my grandmother used to read to me at bedtime with a tranquil diction.  The Prince was saddened to lose his love, the rose, and embarked on a magical journey to space to seek new bonds of friendship. With this new purpose, I now felt emboldened to face school and learn about the cosmos. I was at that point where I knew my ambition would be to become an astronaut and search for an intergalactic friend.  I was no longer lonely because I realised at the end of the day ‘we are all made of star stuff’.