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Red Carpet Chemo Runway

Brandon Slesser
4 min readApr 27, 2024

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Photo by Dorinel Panaite on Unsplash

Rolling Out the Red Carpet

It’s coming closer, the big day, the grand finale, venit ad finem. I run hot water over my head and across my face. I’ve got to look my best for this special occasion. The sound of the bell is getting closer. I can already feel the rope in my hand. My reflection looking back at me in that golden surface. All eyes are on me as take the final stretch and allow every amount of hurt, anger, pain, humiliation, and decay to leave my body. The day that I grab that rope and ring that bell, that is the day that I will finally be set free. The bondages that hold me down will no longer wrap around my wrist and ankles. It will be a day of celebration. The moment that they start ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPET, will be the day that I emerge from the ashes. A burning phoenix no longer held back by limitations and ideologies. I will be free. The flames will dance off my skin in an orchestra of strength and power. Confidence will come back into my face. I will be brand new, born from the ashes of the old life that I will leave behind…watching the old me die so that the new me can be reborn.

The Runway Awaits

I’ll put on my best suit and tie. It will be an occasion unlike any other. It will be greater than a wedding and hold an elegance over the grandest balls and dances. A momentous occasion that I will be able to reflect on and grow from. In that moment, once I have dusted off the ashes of my former life and allowed the weakest part of me to die, I will stretch out my wings and hold them out for everyone to see. It will be an intense fire. The sun will not compare to the passion and victory that I will hold in this moment. I look at the faces around me, knowing that they are still at war, but unlike I did before, I will not take on their pain; instead I will celebrate my victory and allow the embers to beat from my flaming feathers so that too might join me for our greatest soar. Alas, I may be the only one that day that walks down the red carpet celebrating my victory over death, but it won’t be out of vain or a lack of humbleness. I will walk down knowing that I faced the darkest and hardest part of my life to date and wear it…

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Brandon Slesser
Brandon Slesser

Written by Brandon Slesser

Survivor. Fighter. Raw Thinker. I feel deep and my words are deeper. Florida boy who loves the sun and cold drink. Beach goer and speedo fanatic. I’m just me.

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