Flying without the cardboard

"I dreamed I was flying again, but this time something was different. My hands were empty. There was no sheet of cardboard to cling to, no security blanket holding me up the way there had been in so many dreams before. I drifted between two long lines of people, rising only to the height of their shoulders. It wasn't graceful. I wobbled and struggled, my body tilting as I fought to stay in the air, but I was flying just the same. It felt like being a kid who lets go of the training wheels for the first time, the bike unsteady beneath me, my heart racing with the thrill of it. The faces on either side watched me pass. I kept going, shaky and free, knowing I didn't need the cardboard anymore."