Towering stadium lights

blinded like me nothing else before it.

They illuminated

the best things about me.

The fire that

burned

so deeply in my soul I was sure

it would be eternal.

So long as they shined

my heart would always flutter

Unbeknownst to me

the fluorescents slowly

became dimmer.

I was no longer center stage

and they were no longer

my spotlight.

The wildfires that once consumed me

were barely sparks.

What I had once loved no longer

had any place in my heart.

So what does one do

when the lights go out?

The lights went out and it brought darkness

The darkness brought its friends

Depression, Anxiety

and an overwhelming loneliness.

I wondered if I would ever

Feel the same joy again

The uphill battle I fought

Redeemed me with newfound purpose

It forced me to acknowledge that

My light

Was never my own

It was always

The property of others

When the lights go out

We are forced

To forge and work

until we are able to

create our own.

When we are in the midst

Our darkest moments

Is when our true light shines.

The kind of light that no one can turn off,

Light that follows you wherever you may be.

The lights went out but

I have never been brighter

I left the only thing

I had ever known

To find something that was my own.