I was outside in the back of the school. A little cloudy, fairly chilly, and the shadows of the buildings were now stretching themselves far over me while the Sun was falling down near the horizon somewhere behind my general direction. The wind blew over my spacecraft bus, through my louvers, and around the book that I held close to my body. I was enjoying the presence of nature, and the absence of everyone else.

I took my pleasurable walk down one of the concrete paths of the campus, bringing me to the dorms to my left. That breeze was comforting me like a thermal blanket all the way over at Pluto, and the bushes and leaves rustling in the distance was my music. I stopped midway between the main building and the dorms and turned to my right. It was the distant highway, distant hills and houses, and distant whatever else was out there. Whatever else I might not get to see. I opened the book and flipped through the pages to get to a chapter about grassfields and plains. Not a building in sight in them, though sometimes one or two are in the far distance.

To think these indescribable scenes are real. To think that people have actually visited them. To think that they are on this very planet. To think that somewhere, somewhere out there, they're beyond these hills and these structural prints and marks that surround me. Landsat-9 told me to appreciate those kinds of untouched, precious landscapes. Now I know why.

I went back and continued down my way to the dorms, holding the book in my arms. Same exterior color as the main building, though it looked like a three-story apartment. Some lights were on, and some were off. Sometimes I could make out what was inside the rooms. I wondered if they were just miniature cleanrooms. Would I move to one? Maybe, but I hope not. I like mine the way it is. The dorms were separated into three buildings that were connected at the base.

After arriving at the end, I noticed that there wasn't a sidewalk connecting this side to the path on the other side. I stepped up to the edge of the concrete and the dirt and grass of the field in between the paths. I bent down and dragged the back of my robotic hand across the blades of grass before continuously stroking it with the palm of my hand. I stood up, placed by right foot over the grass, stepped in, and brought my left foot in the same place.

The sound of the grass crunching and scrunching under my robotic shoes was satisfying and in a flash of a GRB I ran around without even realizing that I was running. It was the perfect place to enjoy myself, and indeed I enjoyed myself as much as any spacecraft would enjoy a nice, elaborate altitude control system. I kicked up some brown leaves near the sidewalk and watched them fly away. An exhale came out of my mouth and I grabbed up a dozen brown leaves with my left hand. I brought them close to my eyes, staring at the features like I would at Europa, only much more intently.  I let them go to watch them fly away once more.

When I looked back at the school's direction, I saw the silhouette of a bench. Any empty bench, to be exact. And I decided to go over and investigate it. I listened to the grass squishing under my steps, then the clacks over the hard path, and back to the squishy grass. I came out of the building's shadow and found the Sun inching towards falling under the clouds, and maybe some hills behind the JPL. The horizon was just beautiful, it was a live work of art in the sky. All I could do was gape.

"Woah..." Came up the only word I had spoken for the past time I was outside alone.

I made it to the bench, which was a dull faded metallic grey. It had a rectangular table, and two long rectangles for seats. It looked like an in between of a bench for spacecraft and one for humans. I sat down at the one closest to the sunset and placed the book to the right in the empty space of the seat.

I put my hands on my legs and leaned back just a few degrees. There was nobody else but me. I was the only one to enjoy it. But I didn't feel lonely, I felt happy and euphoric. It's amazing how you'd only get sunsets like this on Earth. It was something that I wanted to watch happen over the minutes, just to watch our parent star go down below the horizon as the Earth was rotating in space, and I wasn't in space, I was on Earth.