The Arena.

I’ve dreamt of this place

What it would look like

Feel like

Smell like

I’ve dreamt of making it into this arena

This empty arena

In which one of the greatest battles

Will be fought in front of an audience of none

I entered 2 days ago

Feeling the crunch of gravel under my feet

Smelling the musty air

From battles of old

From failures of past

From mistakes made by others

With dreams that failed to last

I’ve made it to this place

To fight the battle I knew I could fight

But before, never quite believed

I would come out on the other side

And there it stands across from me

Looming

Impending

Dominating

Fierce

Eyes as black as night

Ready to destroy me

As it did so many times before

This creature

Built from all of my fears, doubts, and failures

Larger and stronger than ever

I’ve seen it pass over me before

I’ve seen what it’s capable of

I’ve known how it doesn’t have to fight me physically

But can instead infect my mind

And destroy me from the inside out

And yet there’s something much different about this day

Meeting it here in the arena

The place where men come to live or die

There’s something different in the air

There’s a tension

Not from my side, but from the other

It can sense it

It knows I’ve never been here before

But it knows that in my mind, I’ve been here for years

Fighting to get to this place

Preparing

Sweating

Toiling

Developing

So when the day came

The day I would be judged

I would come forth as a built man

One who created himself with his own hands

And unshackled his life from the chains of old

Knowing I had one fight left

One last attack

To finish it off

And I knew

That this was the only chance I would ever get

To face it like this in the arena

That empty arena

I hear the tip of his sword dragging on the ground

And I know this is my one shot

To break free

To defeat

To conquer what seemed so unconquerable

The battle for my life is here

This is the moment

It can only be seized

Here’s my charge.

Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project