‘The hardest steps,’ Karl, my coach, told me from above, ‘will be the first you take back home.’ Earth will be hell, a home you cannot bear. Gravity crushes you, your body is diminished. You spend months in rehab just to relearn how to walk. You look out at people walking through 1-gravity and you cannot believe their ease, their nonchalance, their indifference to living in this place. ‘This,’ Karl said, ‘right here, right now – this is your chance to give a gift to your future self. Remember that. I guarantee you’ll look back on this moment at the end.’
