This posting refers to a previous publishing.
This day, time, and feeling had finally become so perfect. Upon months of effort, struggle, and dedication, it was this moment that finally played out my most saccharine of dreams. In my mind, I fell to my knees with tears of glee, but in this real world, my heart fluxed rapidly with each repeated step as I ran towards the glorious sunset shone before me. For every sleepless night imagining, waiting for what I witnessed upon me, here I now absorbed every second of what I have longed for much of my young life. So vivid it seems yet to this day, but forever I shall remember this heartfelt rapture.
Running, running, I flee from who I once was, and waltz in tune to the person I am now. As headphones muffle dance and electro melodies across my senses, the amber glow from our closest star gently casts a summer heat on my face and calls forth the beads of sweat upon my forehead. I pivot my eyes around the scenery to capture all that is here in a panoramic content – the image no longer in a dream, but now in the present, and soon in a memory. The eight ‘o clock sunlight, at such an acute angle, pushes through long stalks of greenery and leaves a scatter of pointed shadows at my back and in a direction towards town. The glaring brightness diffuses in my eyes, yet at times I can see the many insects weave in the open air and throughout the vast fields of land. My mind relentlessly pulses with observations, details, emotions, yet my physical stamina is weakening. But I love this moment, and I will travel down the pavement for as long as my legs will endure.
As I continue forth, leading away from the bustle of motor vehicles and the centralization of campus, blades of untamed grasses in hues of greens and browns calmly wave me forward past the last of concrete structures and towards the wire fences bordering thriving farmlands. Domesticated animals graze on parallel sides of me as this summer heat warms the pasture and emits a radiance of rich scents from various crops. The air is mostly still – only slightly resistant to my deep breaths as I jog down the empty roadway.
I look forth and see the bend in the road – the simultaneous marking where the old covered bridge still resides for foot traffic. This is my point of turning back, but not before I take a few more minutes, seconds to soak up this euphoria. I let the sun cast itself well over the horizon before I begin my trek back into town. I battle fatigue, laziness, and gear myself back into a steady running pace, the sneakers erupting a little more audibly as they slap the ground.
Past the shaved lambs, wooden stables, barns, thriving areas of pasture, and the stench of hay bales, I returned to the entrance of my traveled street as all that I just witnessed now glows in a fresh blue flash of dusk. The night air has only bobbed slightly cooler, yet it still produces a well-accepted compensation for my exhaustion. I breathe deeper and clear my mind once again. I continue on a little easier now, returning my jog back to concrete sidewalks and zigzags of smaller streets. By the time I reach home, the sun has disappeared entirely, and a few stars have begun to shine through the evening sky.
That night as I lay in bed, I believed in no more sleepless nights in longing for the gorgeous sunset in the most perfect of times. But I found myself awake once again, a realization of what was missing, a new dream that I sadly had missed. I blinked shut and saw the sunset and starry sky replay in my mind. I now understood what was missing…
… It was you.
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