[ CW ] Start writing a story with these words : `` At first it was shocking , but then it became normal . ''

At first it was shocking, but then it became normal. 
 
 Alex Black, the famous thrill-seeker and adventurer, was the first to venture out and try it in our city. The media pressed around him, ready to capture the moment. 
 
 Tentatively, he removed his helmet and tanks. He sucked in a mouthful of air while we waited for him to pass out. But ten minutes ticked by, and he kept breathing. 
 
 `` Still alive,'' he croaked in the face of those filming him. 
 
 In the safety of my pod, I clapped along with my parents until my hands stung. The day had come. Yes, he rushed back inside shortly afterwards. He collapsed, and was reportedly only back to normal by nightfall. But he survived. He breathed. 
 
 After that, we trickled out one by one. I dragged in lungfuls of air, with nothing obscuring my vision, for the first time in my fifteen years on this planet. It had been announced months ago that it was safe to breathe unrestricted again, but no-one had believed, of course. Until one dared to test the claim. For once, it seemed we had n't been fed lies. 
 
 My mother smiled at me through tears the day we went out. We even walked to the edge of the sparse woods that had been cultivated as part of the global Project. The trees require constant care and supervision, but it was still thrilling to see them, weak as they were. 
 
 `` Think we'll ever go back?'' I asked mom softly, looking around us, drinking in the moment. 
 
 It might change tomorrow, or next year. Life was eternally uncertain on this planet, so close in climate to Earth - but not quite. Not quite. Even more fragile, it was almost time to move on to the newly discovered one. But this news presented hope. Proof that we were n't doomed if we stayed in our homes another year. 
 
 `` To Earth?'' she chuckled sadly, shaking her head as she led me back home. Enough adventure for today. `` We can never go back, my girl. Forget about it.'' 
 
 But as I looked at the shining green leaves reaching toward the sun, I wondered. How hard had they really tried? And when had they last tried? Well-kept secrets that no-one seemed willing to discuss. I would find out, though. I was good at finding things out. 
 
 But I kept my thoughts secret. My family did n't know yet of my ambition to explore space - and worse, return to the earlier planets. Most of them now inhabited by non-humans fighting for land. Abandoned by humanity, except for the maddest men and women, with a unsatiable taste for danger. A suicide mission, they called it. Especially going near Earth, overrun with at least twenty species and choked by toxic air. 
 
 But today was proof of what could be done. 
 
 I grinned to myself, and breathed in deeply. It was a good day to be alive.
