Under Starlight

It was one of those times in February when it was way warmer than it should have been for that time of year. The kind of weather that pops out of nowhere for a day or two, you enjoy for a little, and then hope it goes away because global warming is a huge threat to humanity. That kind of weather.

It was nighttime, and we sat in her hot tub underneath the stars as I rambled on about my life dreams like I always do. She was always good at listening to me, regardless of how crazy I sounded or how long I talked about all the things I wanted to accomplish with my life.

“…and I’m gonna have to make sure that we can get done filming that by the second week of June, because that’s when a lot of people are going to start work and then we’d never have time to get everyone together to finish filming. If we don’t get it done then, we’re totally screwed.”

I fell silent for a moment as my mind jumped to all different places. Filming. Writing. A song that came on the radio on the way to her house that I thought she might like. A weird conversation I heard between two people at the coffee shop on Main Street the day before. I finally stuck a landing on a topic.

“I also really wanna release a music album one day.”

I took a moment to think about how ridiculous that must’ve been for her to hear. She’s known me for two years, and never once have I shown any interest in creating music. I was a writer. A filmmaker. I chuckled to myself.

“No, don’t laugh,” she said to me. “You can do that. You can do anything you want to do.”

And then I stopped, and I looked at her. The genuine sparkle hidden in those soft, brown eyes. The unfeigned confidence in her tone of voice. And that was when I had one of the greatest realizations I’ve ever had in my life.

I can.