The Stage...

I remember the stage. I remember it very clearly. The top 14 were competing and all of us from my college had qualified, out of hundreds. The day before was a self-doubting session of whether I in particular would make it to the list of finalists. It had taken me a lot of hard work to get close to that place, that stage. When the final list came out it was no surprise to the people who knew me. It was a pleasant one for me. The next day had its series of confusion and frustrations but when I went to that stage….I was in love. It was stark dark. I couldn’t see anyone. The judges, the audience, the people I loved, just a light shining in front of me, almost divine. It blinded me with a lot of comforts. The comfort that made me just be with myself and understand what I was singing. The music and the love for it…. I have sung this song a million times since I started competing in college, to the level that I started being called “Hero” or Mariah Carey (not that it hurt). But that day, that moment, I felt what I haven’t felt about myself in ages. I felt complete. I have sought that feeling from a lot of things and people in vain over the years. And when I sit back and think of that moment on stage- pitch dark but a light of thousand moons, I feel a rush. It is the same rush that comes as an assurance that I don’t need to search anymore. My conquest begins and ends without much ado. There will be things and people I will always need, but the stage will welcome me with arms that I want to embrace like no other. The arms that make me feel, so full of myself. It is the best feeling. “Lord knows…dreams are hard to follow But don’t let anyone…take them away… Hold on, there will be a tomorrow In time, you’ll find the way…”