Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours to master any one skill. If that’s the case then I have achieved something greater than mastery; I have achieved transcendence.
All my life I’ve prepared for this very moment.
Every aspect of my adult life has been carefully crafted so that this day, this one moment in my history would go off without a hitch. The friends I chose, the work I took upon myself, the woman I share my life with. All of it a facade, a brilliantly conducted orchestra of deceit. I am as lucid as I have ever been, my senses honed to a fine edge. At the same time I am in a daze, trapped in a lurid hallucination of my own making. There is no going back now, this is happening.
I stand in rank with those I treasure most .
I had myself convinced that I would never be here. Despite my endless toiling towards this eventuality, there was a nagging in the deep recesses of my mind that wanted me to remain where I was, to remain stagnant. “Why go through the trouble?” it would ask me. “Are you not comfortable here, in the womb of your life?”
I stand beneath a hot light.
I see my enemies. Though I know nothing of them, I know that they are my enemies. Had our paths crossed before I may have thought nothing of them. We might have even been friends. But that was in another life. That was before all of this. They face me now not as men and women, but as the five faces of malice. I will cede to them no ground. They cannot be allowed to take this day from me. From us.
I stand parallel to those I detest most.
The Man makes his entrance. He is neither friend nor foe. This Man I have studied. I know every movement he makes. I hear each sound that escapes his manicured lips before it is even formed. His intentions are nebulous, but his actions predictable.
The Man can render unto me no harm.
The time for preparation has long passed. I have traveled far from my homeland, away from the comforts of my reality. I have torn asunder the womb of my life and emerged a wild animal rich with vigor. Rich with hate. My straw has been pulled. I have won this cruel lottery. I will win this day not because I want to, but because I must.
The Man speaks. It has begun.
“Hello everybody and welcome to Family Feud. I’m your man Steve Harvey and boy do we have a good one today.”
