A Fish Out Of Water | STORYBOARDS

A FISH OUT OF WATER
WRITTEN BY NATASHA KOMIS


I remember dreaming of a place… different from what I saw around me… I had premonitions of myself in a FULL state. I was happy, and understood myself…


STEP 1: "THE DREAM"
I have flowed with the river all my life... It never felt right to settle and become the rock... I had always been that kind of salmon jumping up and down the stream... Everyday I jumped, I wanted to jump higher. This continued until I spotted A LAND. Other rocks told me to behave, but I could not stay put, especially after I saw the land, I KNEW there was more out there. I wanted to go to the land and wondered if there would be a river close by in case I needed to jump in to breathe? My mind was filled with questions that had no answers.


STEP 2: "THE IN CROWD"
I eventually met other salmon like myself. None of us listened to the rocks… we caused quite the stir in the river. We kept jumping and jumping. With each JUMP I got more and more of a glimpse of this other world. I started to train my body to jump higher. Kept practicing and practicing until one day I jumped HIGH ENOUGH and landed on the other side... At first I only had the ability to LOOK around… I stayed a while then jumped back to the river to breathe and tell other salmon and rocks what I saw... FEW were on my side and many LAUGHED. My obsession and curiosity grew over this land. I kept jumping over... Everyday the JUMP & ability to hold my breathe and RETURN to THE RIVER got easier, I went BACK AND FORTH, frequently...


STEP 3: "AT HOME"
When back in the River, I would THINK and wonder about this new place… I grew further and further from the rocks and salmon. Was this the place I truly belonged?? Were there others like me?? I wondered what would happen if I stayed on the land longer? Was there another source of water, in case I started to lose my ability to breathe?? Again, questions but no answers.

I eventually garnered the confidence and believed that even if I did not know how I would survive that I would learn. If worse came to worst, I could always head back into the River. I gathered some friends and asked them to jump with me...



STEP 4: "EXCITEMENT"
Day 1
We jumped, I landed, and the voyage began. After seeing the same thing, I felt the innate need to LOOK further, but in order to explore, I would need to MOVE. As a fish, I was only used to moving by swimming… On land how could this be done??


Day 2
I shimmied my body hard enough. Eventually, I learned to move on land. With every move, I saw more and more…


Day 3
I started to move deeper into the land… I found a bank of water and SWAM when needed. I looked back but something told me to KEEP moving. Something kept pulling me. My acclimation to the land, proved that I should KEEP GOING.


Day 4
I could see where my old river was… but I was losing the interest and idea for HOW to get back. The forest was growing, but since I stumbled upon the bank of water before, I believed there would be more, when I TRULY needed. I felt the confidence to KEEP GOING.


As I continued to MOVE, I realized, I had grown what appeared to be legs... I looked at myself and realized I was half fish and half creature of some sort... I was so busy EXPLORING I did not notice my new attributes.


I realized I earned the tools over my time spent in the forest, and that I could probably USE them to go DEEPER and FURTHER. I started to experiment using the legs to CRAWL…


STEP 5: "ALIEN WORLD"
As I crawled, I encountered forces and other creatures of the forest I had never seen or felt before... At first, many were scary… some were like me and some were able to give me advice on which way to go, in order to get back to the river and which way to go if I wanted to KEEP GOING. I noticed the ones telling me this, had longer legs than myself…

This place was getting scarier and lonelier every day… The friends I started with, were not near me… I was not sure if they had gone back to the river or got lost somewhere. I had lost TRACK. I started to wonder if even "I" would have the strength to make it back to the river… In this standstill phase of fear I realized I needed to move FASTER in whatever direction.

Time was ticking. I started to experiment, using my legs upright. I learned to WALK…


STEP 6: "HOLDING STRENGTH"
As I WALKED, I realized I did not know where I was walking. As I once felt secure that I would find a water bank, I felt secure to search, even though I did not know exactly what I would find.

In my chest, I began to feel a WARMTH. I called this warmth MY INTERNAL INSTINCT... I met others, but somehow, these new creatures were full of riddles. I decided it was ONLY safe to use my own instinct. The creatures were getting hard to decipher. I vowed to ONLY trust my HEART and stay on the voyage to SEARCH.


STEP 7: "RUNNING"
After a period of following my HEART I found myself RUNNING. I ran so fast, I could not see even the outline of where the river lay or where the FOREST began. The fact that I could not see the river told me I was right in the MIDDLE of something. I calculated it would probably take the same DISTANCE to reach SOMETHING on the OTHER SIDE. I was STUCK, and the only thing to do, was stop and take my last looks around.


STEP 8: "FEAR"
As it got darker, I grew insecure and tired. I felt BLIND and scared. FEAR had set in. I had noticed my Heart stopped feeling as warm as it did when I first FELT IT. I started to wonder if giving up was easier? I was tired of running and did not want to encounter seeing NOTHING. I wondered if maybe I could settle right there and become a ROCK in the forest or head back to the river??? In every option, I mapped out mere impossibility…


STEP 9: "DARKNESS"
I stopped running, walking and crawling in fear of COMPLETE DARKNESS. I thought maybe if I just stood STILL, that I could keep the tiniest bit of light left; LIT. I was wrong. My Heart grew stale from standing still, and eventually the darkness found me. I spent days and days seeing and hearing nothing. The silence grew.

As I lay thinking, I remembered being the small FISH… I remembered how I used to BELIEVE, how I used to want MORE. Somewhere deep inside I remembered what my first JUMP felt like, I felt myself smile. I started to think more and more of my INITIAL move; I could feel my smile grow wider and wider and my heart beat louder and louder. Even if I could not see or hear what I was doing, I had to BELIEVE and TRUST in my own SELF... To do it in honor of my "1st jump."

I started to move in complete DARKNESS…


I pushed my HEART until I reached TOP SPEED. I started to see a glimpse of LIGHT in the near DISTANCE. MY HEART grew stronger, and tears of joy ran down my face… I remembered that JUMPING was what got me out of the river to begin with… Even though I had learned to run, I felt the innate feeling to JUMP again, so I did.
I jumped so high, I reached the light, and next I found myself at a CROSSROAD… The CENTER, for everything I had EVER known. In back of me was my RIVER, next to me was the FOREST and in front of me was a SKY...
"Which way was I to head???"


STEP 10: "THE LOOK BACK"
Before finalizing a decision, I went back to the river to see if and WHO wanted to come with me... I showed them my LEGS and told them of my HEART… and how great it felt to BEAT for something. I tried to prove to them that there was something past this new land that connected the old river and whatever lay beyond... Some looked at me like I was crazy...

And others wanted no part of what I had become. They made fun of my legs and heart, and took my kindness of SHARING, for granted. With every laugh, I DROWNED more and more into the river I once thought I knew. I realized, I had lost my ability to sustain water... My legs and heart, could not take the drowning, for they were built... to RUN...
IN DESPERATION, I headed back to the CROSSROAD. For the moment, this place of OPTION was the only place "ALL THE PARTS," of me could survive…


STEP 11: "THE DIVE"
As I stood in the center of the crossroad, I felt sad that the others hadn't come with me, but I couldn't force them… I had to think quick... I realized I had made the journey on my own, and that they would have to do it for themselves, if they ever wanted to reach their INITIAL dream. With this realization, I began to beat to the RHYTHM of My OWN HEART…
I sent love behind me and took STEPS towards the new horizon, in this SKY that lay in front of me…
I felt something starting to develop on my sides...


STEP 12: "FLITE"
They were wings... showing me I was ready to take FLIGHT...


--— Natasha Komis - Nov 27, 2012

© COPYRIGHT 2012 NATASHA KOMIS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED