A Moment

Do you remember when you were little, and your future was nothing but some distant fog that held no reality in your present? Do you remember what it was like to think you could be the President, or a doctor, or a minister? Do you remember as you got older, and those dreams began to take shape, to grow into something more...when you wanted to be and do something more? Do you remember that deep feeling that came with wanting to save the world, and never having any doubt that you could? Do you remember preparing, studying, gaining knowledge to enable your dreams to actually come true? Do you remember what it was like to look at a sunset and know there was such a sweet beauty in believing your dreams were soon going to become a reality? Do you remember dreaming so big, and so wide that nothing was going to stop you? Do you remember a life so beautiful, so brilliant, so pure that you embraced your future with the widest of arms? Do you remember loving without fear, without regret, without restraint, without holding anything back? Do you remember flinging yourself with wild abandonment into the great unknown, knowing full well that you would be caught before you fell?

Do you remember that first inkling of doubt, that first tremor of fear that the world is a much darker place than you were told? Do you remember the tragic anguish of your first broken heart that began the glimmer of despair? Do you remember where you were the first time someone told you they loved you, but it was a lie? Do you remember when all you had prepared for, studied for, longed for, and dreamed wildly was just an empty shadow of something you only thought you had seen? Do you remember no longer looking at stars as a wish? Do you remember when you stopped throwing pennies in a wishing well, or didn't stop to look at a rainbow? Do you remember the depth of sorrow that came with knowing everything you believed in wasn't true? Do you remember the feeling of being shattered when you realized your dreams had become your nightmare. Do you remember the tears streaming down your face the day your heart stopped beating, and you began to die instead of live?

What's next? What happens when there are no more dreams? What happens when the lessons you've learned cloud the joys of your innocence? What do I do now?