Blaze of a Dream
Ting Zhao
They say reach for the stars , but they forget that stars burn .
The wind threatened to push me down for what seemed like the thousandth time , the cold edge seeping through to my bones , but the lip of a slope wasn ’ t a place to idle . I had come this far , what was the point of turning back ? Step after step after step I climbed , but the mountain kept getting steeper . Fall after fall after fall I had taken , yet something in me kept pushing - pushing through the endless snow , through the bitter cold . Something which I shouldn ’ t have trusted ; something which pushed me too far and off the path and before I knew it , I was falling down , down , down -
‘ Who knew the sun could be so cold ?’ I thought as the pillars of light shining down offered me nothing but harsh rays . Despite how ethereal the snow looked as light was dancing on it , all I could feel was the slow creep of numbness crawling into me .
Perhaps I could have got up then , but the flame inside me was slowly being smothered by the piercing bite of the snow around me . Without the burn , there was nothing for me to overcome , nothing for me to reach for . So I lay there , watching the wind and snowflakes mockingly waltz in the air , until everything stopped moving and the biting cold disappeared . Until there was nothing left .
The lack of ambition wasn ’ t a gaping hole , or an overwhelming abyss . It was the absence of anything . Completely , utterly still . Slowly , I felt myself starting to crave the burn of the flame which had been blown out all too suddenly . The pain that it had brought me snuck out of my mind and all I could think of was tearing away from this emptiness and rekindling that scorching fire inside of me .
Bit by bit by bit , I broke away from the suffocation of the avalanche . The sun ’ s warm embrace greeted me , showed me my path , and the fire which I was so familiar with set ablaze once more , lighting up the summit which I longed to reach .
Even though the stars burn , it ’ s the burn that makes them beautiful .