When I awoke and stepped out the door, a blanket of fresh white snow had enveloped the earth. I was blinded by the intensity of the bright white world surrounding me. I plodded through the snow with naked feet, and yet I never grew cold. Indeed, I felt no pain at all, my entire body had fallen into a state of complete numbness. There was no sound. Even the sound of my voice was muffled by the snow to the point of inaudibility.

I stood awhile in the sparkling white world I had discovered, and although I had seen many snowfalls in my life, it seemed brand new. In some strange way, it was different from anything I had ever experienced before. It was as though I had drifted off into a fantasical dream; yet I was completely aware of my consciousness. The experience was overwhelming, and my wonderment shortly turned to fear. I began to look for some sign of civilization. I turned back toward the doorway through which I had wandered, but there was no doorway. There was nothing but me and the snow.

A series of questions bombarded my mind, and I was nearing a state of panic. I wondered why I had walked through that door, and, for that matter, what lay on the other side of the door. I was unable to remember where I was when I awoke. I could only remember waking up from a deep slumber and stepping outside the door. Then a strange image began to form in my mind - the cold rain splashing against the glass, and the blurred red lights on the other side of the glass. The lights suddenly jumped forward and I was unable to move.

Then there was darkness, and the next thing I remember I was stepping through that door into the snowy world. The experience was beginning to make sense, but it was all too much to handle. I lay down in a soft bed of snow that had drifted up against a tall evergreen, and I began to think back. I missed my friends and family. I missed school, in fact, I even missed waking up each day to the violent buzzing of an annoying alarm clock.

Above all, however, I began to miss the things which were yet to come. I had yet to experience my high school graduation, I had yet to experience life on my own at college, and most important, I had yet to experience the beauty of falling in love. I thought of my parents, and how fortunate they were to have found each other. I wondered what it would be like to have such strong emotions for another that I would be content to spend the rest of my life with that person. I only wished I had a chance to discover that mystical emotion.

As I fell into this condition of utter despair, I noticed a lone snowflake falling gracefully through the sky. I was mesmerized with its celestial elegance, and as it fell, a soft wind blew the snowflake directly into the palm of my hand. I lifted my head to see the most beautiful figure standing before me. As I raised my head to look at the figure, it floated off toward a distant light. I was entranced by its power, and I followed its trail into the light. I spun around to look for the figure, and I realized why I had been compelled to follow. I looked into the eyes of my angel, and I knew there was life. It was not life as I had known it before. It was far more magnificent; I found myself wishing that I could go back and tell everyone about it, but I knew that their time would come. n