Creative Writing Sample: "Take a deep breath"

Breathe in... breathe out.

The multi-colored lights flood an empty stage from numerous directions. The room is crowded but silence prevails as the room anticipates the next performance. My performance. For the next three minutes all eyes are on me.

Breath in.

Day after day I have dedicated two to three hours of my life to prepare for this singular moment. Weeks turn into months until finally the moment has arrived and I am on in 2 minutes. All that preparation has come down to this moment. I only have three minutes to "wow the crowd." The butterflies begin to take flight in my stomach as my nerves kick in, reminding me of the upcoming performance. What if they don't like my song? What if my message isn't powerful enough? Thoughts like these swim like raging rapids in my head as I stand backstage waiting for the announcer to introduce me. As the announcer finishes his intro, I take a deep breath, take a leap of faith, and begin to walk onto the stage.

Breath out.

The encouragement of cheers and clapping calms the butterflies but only for a second as silence takes over in anticipation of my song. I take a breath, and my three minutes begin. It's like a dream, but I'm awake. The world around me fades out and nothing is real except for me and the music. I feel powerful and majestic as the dynamics crescendo and decrescendo in perfect sequence and harmony. I never feel more alive than right now, in this instant. Three minutes may seem like a short amount of time, but for me I am living a lifetime through the music and story that I am performing. I have played many roles and sung many songs, but now, everything else is obsolete. The venom of fear that seeped into my soul has been healed by the love I have for the music.

As my three minutes tic down to the final 20 seconds I come out of the incredible dream. I realize that I am on stage with hundreds of people watching me. I try to grasp on to the dream as it begins to float away but now my three minutes is down to ten seconds. Only ten more seconds until the end. In the end, there are only two results. One, thunderous applause or two, polite clapping to show credit to my performance. I crave the thunderous applause because I know what it feels like. I end on a jaw-dropping, fully-belted note, a note that I have been perfecting for weeks. This note is the last desperate attempt that I have to hold onto the dream, to hope even for a moment that my three minutes won't end.

Breathe out.

Thunderous applause echoes from the audience as I finish my performance. Total ecstasy emanates from my lips as they rip open, revealing a wide, full-toothed grin. All the hard work and effort has paid off. I am on top of the world and no one could possibly bring me down. There is nothing like this moment.