First comes blackness. After years, when nails are scarred, raw from boredom, hunger consumes the mind… comes a pinprick of light. Just a speck, so small we turn away, continue listening to the complaints of a pestering stomach. Enough, so after a second we double take, looking back to see… yes, a pinprick of light.

The single speck of white gives birth to an increasing array of children, huddling together to form a smudge. Smudge spreads to a stain, filling the void with light. No longer just white, but red, blue, green, gold; endless colours that I don't have names for. Blurring past are swirls of dust, blobs of colour, blinding flashes of fire barely made out. By the way, the stomach gurgling is a sign that we’re going faster than we were ever intended to.

Colours no longer whizzing past, but flying, running, walking, now staggering. Our exit must be nearing; someone has found the brakes. Ah, there it is… so familiar, so special. Home. Our blue and green space rock. Well that’s what colours we think it is, who knows if that’s its official colour. Could be red and purple, black and white… the way we act sometimes makes me think it is black and white. None of this colour stuff really matters anyway… we've been around long enough to realise colour doesn't matter? Plus, we’re probably the only ones who will ever see this rock in the corner of the blackness, so we can name it WHATEVER colour we like! Screw you universe.

Back to our magnificent trip. Thanks to our little sidetrack when we look up, our home is no longer in the distance, but dominating our field of view. Beautiful. Pity it’s so unimportant. So small. Even this space rock, a fraction of a space millimetre wide, seems like its own universe. Endless water, sweeping land that can’t possibly be conquered, can’t possibly be fully explored. Luckily we don't have to try see it all, for we’re heading to a tiny island somewhere at the bottom. Shush, don't spoil it for the foreigners! We reach this island, its natural beauty becoming evident; green that’s actually green not yellow or grey, blue that is actually blue not brown or black. Natural still conquers unnatural. This is how the world should be… even then it’s far from perfect. There’s the concrete, the corroding houses, the lung clogging fumes. Somewhere amongst it all they stand.

I don't blame you for not knowing who they are. 1 of 7 billion humans… on one of a trillion planets… in one of a trillion solar systems. But yes they are there, somewhere in the blackness… at least for the next few milliseconds of time. Actually, that’s a bit generous. They’re a lot less significant than that.

After our journey, after we've witnessed the indescribable void of blackness, the never ending light, then stumbled on the tiniest of rocks, I’ll ask you a question. Do you blame them for thinking they don't matter? That they’re insignificant. That whatever they do won’t change a thing in that blackness. That their mistakes really aren't mistakes because they have no real effect.

Perhaps you still think they’re, you’re, important? More important than the other 7 billion humans, on a more important planet than the other trillion, in the most important solar system of all. THE UNIVERSE REVOLVES AROUND YOU! Everything you do matters, so we should fall at your feet and make you accent ever smoother.

Or do you not see it so black and white? Do you see it green and blue? You're not important, you’re not unimportant… you are a piece. A piece in a universal puzzle, a single cog in a endless machine. Yes, you will get lost amidst the rest of the pieces, probably never noticed… but without you the picture would never be complete.

It is this that makes you matter.