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CHAPTER ONE
A SIMMERING CELESTIAL.
THE FIRST SONG I EVER performed in my seventeen years on this earth was 'I Wanna Dance' by Whitney Houston.
I could remember the crowd that day. Shadowy figures of men and women sat in front of me with their grins under their noses. The stage lights had dots appearing in my vision, cuddling me with its liveliness and sparks of spirit. I could point out my mother and father in the crowd. Cheering and smiling for the beautiful baby girl to use the talent the God gifted her with. My skin was bright and clear, reflecting the energy and joy I felt within that moment to be something. To mean something.
I was six years old at that time, and I truly believe that was the first time I've ever felt alive.
My love for music and singing never stopped that day. As soon as my parents saw the talent and skills that rested in me at a young age, they wanted to confirm my interests in singing. And only wanted to see if my new love was for life or if it was a new hobby. However, I was able to convince them that this was the start of something new. From that day on, they placed me in piano and vocal lessons that helped strengthen my qualities. From eight I could play the songs I wanted. Songs I heard on the radio, songs I heard during church on Sundays, and the best of it all – songs I never heard at all, but instead, heard in my mind during random moments.
And then I discovered I did have talent. I could siren a room with chords, but also siren them with my lyrics and words.
Singing to me was more than using your lips to mouth about love or pain, to me it was a lifestyle. My heart was full the moment I sang that song at six years old and from then on I believe I've known what genuine joy feels like.
High School began about seven years later. I had to learn about rival singers that try to knock you down every chance they get. I had to learn to still maintain my love, even if it gets hard when you don't have much support to hold you.
I walked in the three-story building at fourteen, not expecting people to flock their way towards me the way they did. I assume people saw my last name and my status and decided that I was gonna be the 'it' girl that year. People saw my beauty from my mother and my boldness from my father and it gave them a fusion they would have never dreamed of.
Athena Virginia St. James was that fusion. I was that glorious fusion.
"Okay everyone let's begin from the top," my chorus instructor states from the stage in the auditorium. A few students yawned in boredom and some groaned out loud from the repetitive nature of our teacher. She seemed to want everything to be perfect from the first verse to the chorus and to the bridge. If I hadn't been counting I would have assumed that it was the sixteenth time, but it was actually the fourteenth. I probably would've cared and been upset if I was them, but unlike them my personality is to strive for perfection–and I genuinely love what I'm doing.
