The lights were hotter than I imagined. Not just warm, but searing, bearing down on my skin like summer pavement. I stood frozen, not out of confidence, but because moving felt dangerous. Like if I took a step, I'd shatter.
My grip tightened around the mic stand, not for show, but because I needed something to anchor me.
My palms were damp, and I could feel a bead of sweat roll down my back. The auditorium stretched out in front of me, filled with shadows and waiting faces I couldn't quite make out. All I saw were eyes. Watching. Expecting.
That's when the doubt showed up. Quiet. Sharp. Uninvited.
"What if I choke? What if my words don't land? What if I forget everything I rehearsed and make a fool of myself?"
If you're reading this now, just know—this isn't a performance. It's not a curated moment or a polished quote meant to inspire. It's me. Raw. Shaky. Honest.
My name is Seraphina Wells. Most people call me Sera.
This day? It was supposed to be just another college event. Another small stage. Another spoken word piece. But life doesn't ask for permission before it changes everything. And looking back, I can tell you that the shift started right here.
They called it the Student Creativity Conference. Theme: "Rewriting the Narrative." Cute, right?
I was to open the session with one of my poems. Nothing major. I wasn't even part of the main lineup. Just a small note in the program: Fresh Voice Feature.
But to me? It felt huge. I'd practiced until the words blurred together. Recited it so many times in front of the mirror that my own reflection stopped reacting.
Jordan, my boyfriend listened patiently through every version, even the bad ones. He believed in me. Said my voice could move rooms. I didn't know if he was right.
Thirty minutes before my name was called, I stood backstage, clutching my folded-up sheet of paper like a lifeline. My heart was racing so loud I could feel it in my teeth. My throat was dry. My stomach twisted itself into knots so tight, I couldn't tell if I was about to speak or throw up.
The emcee's voice broke through the fog in my head. "Next, we have a piece by one of our own freshmen, Seraphina Wells."
Everything inside me paused. The crowd, the stage, even the heat of the lights. Then, like my body had a mind of its own, I stepped out.
Each footfall felt too loud. My heartbeat competed with my thoughts. I kept my gaze just above the crowd, avoiding faces. The spotlight burned into my forehead, casting shadows I didn't recognize. But when I reached the mic, I gripped the stand like it was the only solid thing in my world.
And then I remembered my dad's voice, deep and calm from the night before: "You got this, Sera. Show them who you are."
So I opened my mouth. And I told my truth.
"I was born in the middle of a prayer,
Carried on the breath of my father's 'amen.'
My mother says I didn't cry—I arrived humming.
Maybe that's why life has always sounded like a verse I forgot to finish."
Each line came out steadier than I thought it would. Not perfect, but real. My voice shook at first, then steadied as the rhythm carried me. The poem wasn't just words—it was a release. I gave them every inch of me: the buried anger, the quiet hopes, the fire I'd tucked away for too long. I didn't perform. I bared.
By the time I reached the last line, I was breathless. Weightless. Like I'd just run through something I didn't know I needed to survive.
There was a silence.
Not the kind that means confusion. The kind that swells with something unspoken.
And then—they stood. One by one. A slow-building applause filled the room. I saw someone in the second row press their knuckles to their mouth. Someone else blinked hard. There was a whistle. A cheer.
I stepped off the stage, hoping to vanish into the curtain's safety. But just before I disappeared, I saw him again.
He wasn't in the row where I'd first spotted him. Now he stood at the back of the auditorium, arms crossed, grey suit sharp against the dim wall. Watching. Still.
It wasn't the stare that caught me. It was the way it felt—like he was studying not the poem, but the person behind it. Like he already knew something I hadn't figured out yet.
Backstage, the air felt cooler. I leaned against the wall, still shaking. My knees didn't feel like mine. Part of me wanted to cry. Another part wanted to laugh. But deep down, I knew something had shifted.
I had left a piece of myself out there. And maybe, just maybe, it was the part I'd been most afraid to share.
Jordan found me a few minutes later, grinning like I'd just won the World Cup.
"Sera, you just burned that stage to ashes," he said, pulling me into one of those hugs that crushed the air out of my lungs in the best way.
"I was terrified," I whispered against his shoulder.
"And you still owned it," he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
"That last line? 'I am the daughter of the dust but destined for gold'? Sera, that hit deep."
Jordan and I had met during registration week, bonding over American literature and a shared addiction to salt-and-vinegar chips. He'd made those chaotic first days feel lighter, manageable. He was sharp, funny, and had this way of looking at me like I was more than the nervous girl behind the poems.
And tonight? He looked at me like I was glowing.
"I'll grab us drinks," he said, tucking a loose curl behind my ear. "Don't move."
I watched him disappear into the crowd, then slipped outside to catch my breath. The autumn air met me with cool fingers.
That's when I saw him again.
The grey suit. The sharp stillness. Standing by one of the campus sculptures, thumbing through his phone like the night wasn't anything special.
I was about to turn back when he looked up straight to me.
"Sorry," I said quickly, caught staring.
"Smiles," he replied, stepping forward with a calm kind of confidence. "You did a remarkable job out there. That piece… you wrote it?"
I nodded, suddenly unsure if I should smile or brace myself.
"You write like someone who's already lived five lives," he said.
"Maybe I have," I answered, folding my arms against the breeze.
He extended his hand again, simple and direct. "Malik."
No last name. No credentials. Just that.
"Sera," I replied.
"I sponsor this event every year," he said. "But tonight? Tonight felt different. Like I finally got my money's worth."
I blinked, caught off guard by how sincere it sounded. "Thank you. That means a lot."
And somehow, it really did.
I didn't know what to say. Compliments weren't something I'd ever learned to accept easily, especially not from someone like him. I had braced for a polite nod, maybe a short "well done," but this felt different. Malik wasn't just being courteous. He was paying attention.
He smiled again. Not wide. Not forced. Just enough to make it clear that he saw me. Really saw me.
And there was something in his eyes, a pause in the air, like he wasn't just passing through my night. Like he had meant to be there.
Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small card.
"If you ever want to develop something," he said, holding it out. "Write. Collaborate. I'd like to support that."
I took it, trying to keep my expression calm even as my mind jumped into a dozen different questions. Was he serious? Was this business or something else? What did he see in a freshman poet with one decent performance?
I glanced down at the card. Just a name. A number. Nothing flashy. Nothing fake.
That night, in the quiet hum of my dorm room, I couldn't sleep. I opened my journal, the one I brought with me from home, the one already filled with half-formed thoughts, scraps of dreams, lines I hadn't said out loud.
I turned to a blank page and wrote:
"A stage is a sacred thing. It reveals what mirrors cannot."
I paused.
Then wrote:
"Is this the life we really want?"
I stared at the words, pen still hovering, letting the ink form a soft dot on the paper like it was thinking too. And it hit me—that question wasn't about Malik. It wasn't even about Jordan.
It was about me.
And for the first time in a long while, I realized… I didn't know the answer.