classpectlab:

Originally by @batjectivity, for ClasspectLab’s Task 1.0, 2016.

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It’s like a gorgeous painting with no centre, skimming on the surface of glory but never finding what’s at its core. It’s impenetrability, loud noises banging in your ears and shielding you. It’s being the centre of everyone’s attention and just loving it. It’s standing centre stage and letting your instincts take over because they’re never wrong and everything is perfect. It’s glitter that reflects all the light.

It’s admiring a tornado until you’re sucked in. It’s like being suspended in darkness underwater with no sense of direction. It’s being suspended in the moment before taking a step, knowing that you’ll have to put your foot down to move forward but questioning yourself over and over: why? It’s running on an injured leg, trying over and over to keep going but tripping and falling man it’s running down a hill, hurtling down, arms flailing, trying to control the inevitable fall. It’s stumbling, blind, through a maze, and running into dead end after dead end.

It’s having a shining path ahead of you, staining with the blood and sweat of everyone who’s tried before. It’s seeing everyone else taking less painful paths, miles ahead of you but still looking to you to lead them. It’s placing your foot in the path, and seeing your own blood in the footprints you leave. It’s trudging ahead anyway, and with each step you take, the faster everyone else around you goes too. It’s being blind when everyone else can see. It’s memorising every crack, every stone, every inch of ground with your own hands, because no one else but you will ever need anything but their eyes to know what’s ahead of them.

It’s reaching the end of the path and being the first to look back. It’s reaching out a hand to drag others across the finish line, because no one else knows better how hard it took to get there. It’s celebrating with those who reach the end, grasping their hands and linking them together. It’s being the first, the middle, and last in the chain, and being the first one to take the next step.