It was a new feeling, a feeling of being fully present and alive. I felt like I was inside my skin, as though my cells themselves were breathing. It was as if my fullest sense of self was embodied within the walls of my physical being. And until that moment, I did not know that this was a way to be in the world. Up until then, the closest feeling I’d had was the feeling of aliveness I experienced when I was in water, or when I was onstage pretending to be somebody else. But this was a sense of full presence, on land, as me.
