There comes a time in your life when you step back and look at yourself. You admire your accomplishments, your triumphs, and your goals attained, and smile with the knowledge that you have reached a level of happiness you had set out for yourself. But then something happens and your world goes into chaos and life as you once knew it disappears into this black abyss and the only one who can see it is you. This book is a testament to a life I loved and without even knowing, changed before my very eyes. It is a compilation of a past life that collided with my present mind and heart and as a result, has brought me to where I am now. These narratives and poems speak a truth from the past to the present, in hopes that I may cleanse my pallet and start fresh, in a life where I am my own guide and master of my own dreams. This will be a life of new goals, accomplishments, and triumphs. I step into the next chapter of my life, a blank page ready to be written.