It was unusually warm for an October night. The sun was hidden, but it still had something to say. My brother and I walked beneath the moon’s song and between the sun’s whispers. We were two drops in a river of people flowing from the Rialto Center for the Arts and towards our own oceans.

“Where y’all coming from?” A woman, draped in green, her brown skin glistening with the moon, stopped me and my brother.

“Georgia State University talent show.” I answered her, trying to hide the defeat in my voice.

“Oh, wow!” She exclaimed. Her excitement revealed the shining gold tooth in her mouth.

“Yeah,” I matched her smile, “I just finished performing.”

My words felt like a whisper amongst the echoes of Lucki Street. I had just performed in front of hundreds of people, putting my words in the air with a prayer that they would resonate. But my peers had decided that I would not come in first place. Or second. Or third. My words were lost in an ocean of talent.

“You performed? Well go on now with ya bad self!” The woman laughed, “You children, y’all the future. Keep inspiring people with your words.”

Gratitude bubbled up past the shame in my throat, “Thank you. I needed this. I was just sad because I didn’t win.” Her face morphed from wonder and wide eyes to a stern ferocity.

“You listen to me,” Her words were a lifeboat. I held on for dear life.

“Life will try to knock you down. It will try to break you, wring the joy from you. But you never stop going. Long as you got a beat in your heart and breath in your lungs, you keep moving forward.”

“Get up here.” She motioned for my brother and I to stand on the bench next to us. “You make your own stage. Wherever you go, make your own stage. Keep speaking out loud.”

I laughed as tears stung my eyes. She breathed life into every part of me.

“You should have won!” A voice erupted from the river of people, followed by “Yeah!” and shouts of support.

“Thank you!” I cried out in response.

My brother by my side, and a fairy godmother in front of me, I stood on my makeshift stage, and I jumped into the air, sure that I would grow wings. Sure that those wings would carry me toward my dreams. Maybe I didn’t need to win. Maybe I had to fall so I could fly.