A Stage That Never Was
Text by Fei Original image via Pinterest I close my eyes, and for a fleeting moment, I am there—bathed in the golden glow of a spotlight, standing in the place where my heart has always belonged. The stage is ready beneath me, a rare certainty in a life of doubt. My pulse thrums with the rhythm of a song I was meant to sing. I move with a weightlessness I have never known, my voice carving through the silence like it was made to be heard. And when the applause comes—loud, unrelenting, an embrace I never had to beg for—I am not just existing. I am alive. Then, like it always does, reality rips me away. The stage crumbles into the cold hum of fluorescent lights. The music fades into the rustling of papers, the heavy scrape of expectation against my ribs. My feet do not dance—they run, chasing deadlines, drowning in obligations. My voice does not soar—it answers, complies, stifles itself into nothingness. I do not get to stand beneath the lights. I do not get to let my soul spill int...