I was lying in bed, drifting off, just about to fall asleep. You know that feeling where you’re half-awake and half-asleep? That’s where I was. And then, out of nowhere, I felt something at the foot of my bed. I couldn’t really see it, but I knew something was there. Before I even had time to react, I felt this pull, like someone grabbed me by my feet and started lifting me right out of my body. It sounds crazy, but that’s exactly what happened. I wasn’t scared, though. It was more like I was supposed to go along with it.
All of a sudden, I was in this completely beautiful place—somewhere I’d never seen before but, at the same time, it felt so familiar. Like, deep down, I knew this place. I was standing outside, or at least it felt like outside, but everything around me was glowing, shimmering in this otherworldly way. Right in front of me was this huge platform, almost like a stage, and sitting in the center of it was a throne. It was empty, but on both sides of the throne were these tall poles with lights at the top that were so bright they lit up the whole sky.
The sky…oh my god, it was incredible. It was this deep, dark blue, but not like nighttime here. It was richer, and there were millions of stars, like glitter sprinkled across the sky. I couldn’t stop staring at it.
Then, even though the throne was empty, I heard a voice. It wasn’t loud, but it was clear, and it said, “This is where you come from.” Just like that. And it wasn’t like I had to ask what it meant—I just knew. Somehow, I knew this place was connected to me, like I was from here or I belonged here. It was the strangest but most amazing feeling, like a weird sense of home.
Everything around me was made of crystal. Where there should’ve been grass, it was all green crystal, glowing softly beneath my feet. The sidewalk leading up to the throne was made of smoky quartz, this glassy, cloudy stone that shimmered in the light. The whole place was like one big, sparkling, crystal world, and it was beyond anything I could’ve imagined.
I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay there forever, or at least long enough to explore more, but whoever—or whatever—had brought me there wasn’t letting me. I felt myself getting pulled back, like I was being forced to return to my body. The next thing I knew, I woke up, back in my bed. But it didn’t feel like a dream—it was way too real for that. It felt like I’d actually been there, like I’d experienced something no one would believe.
The first thing I wanted to do was paint it, to capture how beautiful that place was. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it justice. Every time I showed someone my painting, they teased me, saying I must’ve had a “Wizard of Oz” dream and was talking to the Wizard or something. It hurt, but I didn’t care, because deep down, I knew the truth. I knew what I saw. And, honestly, I could feel that this was just the beginning.