Stage lights

Every year when I've signed up to do the end-of-year performance, there comes a time when I think I regret the decision: the extra hours, the nervousness that makes my muscles forget how they're supposed to properly move--leading to inevitable injuries, and the fact that it coincides with the some of the most stressful months of my yearly job cycle.... I find myself wondering, why? am I putting myself through this again?

And then I arrive at the stage, and you see the lights, and while most people get nervous about the stage, there's something I find, in my anxiety-riddled mind, comforting about being out there in the total darkness. Looking out at the pitch black off stage, for me, is like being wrapped in a heavy security blanket. Time stops. My mind calms. The only thing that's left are the glitters that shimmer off the stage lights, which, in their blinding brightness, burn out the rest of the world, and all you focus on is floating.

^pictured: Cassidy, in the dress rehearsal for her solo.