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The #PRIDE🏳️‍🌈 We Can't Forget

A Letter To The Reader

By Naomi WalkerPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Naomi (left) & Kassie (right)

As you look at the photo above, imagine you are walking through Nashville - it is 2021 and you are reminiscing on the most amazing #PRIDE🏳️‍🌈 experience of June 2018.

Your headphones are in... your mind is ready... you want the ultimate reminder of what life is to be surrounded by people of similar walks of life, experiences, struggles and joys!

Your experience starts as the lights drop out... out of the silence you hear

"They don't make them beats like they used to... they don't make them beats..."

Within seconds your heart is beating with the sound of Todrick Hall feat. RuPaul singing “Dem Beats” and the jams begin! As you groove through 3.5 minutes of pure electro-groove, you pat your “weave” and dance in the form of catwalk.

You are walking past all the beautiful shops around you. Some offering jewelry, some offering clothes, and some offering tools to show your #PRIDE🏳️‍🌈! As the beat drops out and you hear RuPaul's laughter... you begin to hear another familiar sound...

As the first bar plays through and the silence breaks, you shutter at the sound:

"I've been hearing symphonies, before all I heard was silence. A rhapsody for you and me, and every melody is timeless..."

The excitement builds as you get through the first verse... knowing what was coming next. “Symphony”, by Clean Bandit feat. Zara Larsson begins to move you through the crowd of people.

You get closer and closer to the main event but realize it is time to eat something. So, you groove your way through the crowd to locate the food truck of your choice.

You order your meal and as it is being made you pop your headphones back in for the next wave of excitement. You know this one...

"Somebody said you got a new friend... Does she love you better than I can?"

You sway side to side hearing the words "I keep dancing on my own" as Robyn sings "Dancing On My Own". In that same moment you realize, you are not actually alone at all.

You are surrounded by loved ones who cherish your existence no matter who you are or even more, who people say you are! You begin to feel a wave of emotion and in that moment, your food is ready.

As you look at your food, you realize you need to get something to drink. You remember there were signs for beverages further down the crowd.

As Robyn fades out... the sound of pure pleasure starts to fill your body. You hear a voice that makes your blood flow like lava through your veins.

"I'm done hating myself for feeling... I'm done crying myself awake..."

Sam Smith singing "How Do You Sleep?" causes you to walk with a noticeably confident swag. You push your neck a little further out while your steps caress the ground.

"Tell me how do you..."

And in a moment, you are in a full-blown strut to the taste of rainbow beer! #PRIDE🏳️‍🌈 has never seen a more confident human being.

But now it is time to make your way to the stage... after all the main event is right around the corner.

Who better to follow the great Sam Smith than the one and only Janelle Monáe reminding you how amazing you can make yourself feel with, “I Like That”?

“Sometimes a mystery, sometimes I’m free. Dependin’ on my mood or my attitude”

By the time she says, “I don’t care what I look like, but I feel good, better than amazing and better than I could”, you are in so wrapped up in the beat that you are enticing a random stranger to sway with you in synchronized motion.

You are floating on cloud nine and feeling so good. As we keep moving through the large crowds that have gathered around the smaller DJ booth with a dancing competition under way you start to hear the next song.

“I do my hair toss, check my nails. Baby how you feelin’?”

You push through as the sweet sound of Lizzo singing “Good as Hell” drives you to skip your way through the crowd; spinning, singing at the top of your lungs, and not caring who hears you!

Only a couple more songs stand between you and the main event, so you realize you have to keep going. The distraction is everywhere but you push past the layer of anti-LGBTIQ+ protestors and keep your head held high!

Besides this is #PRIDE🏳️‍🌈!

“If all of the kings had their queens on the throne, we would pop champagne and raise a toast!”

This is it… Ava Max singing “Kings & Queens” is what we have been waiting for! You take a quick drink in the form of a toast, and you continue to move.

The crowd begins to open onto a large field. Filled with people just like you, waiting to see the main event.

As you take off your headphones… you start to hear it…

“I need at the first sunrise; I need it in the evening time…”

Andreas Moss is on stage performing “Deep Down Below” feat. Yacht Money, demanding every second of the attention provided by the captivated crowd. Somehow, he has forced half of venue up to the stage within his first 30 seconds.

As he moves you through his tantalizing set, you cannot help but crave more before he has even finished. Thinking it cannot get any better you hear the start of the next artist, and you freeze.

“We got a lot of time to get it right, it feels to mess it up maybe don’t think about it…”

Fletcher has taken the stage to perform “Wasted Youth”. You have never heard of Fletcher, but you know you need to! You immediately start pulling out your phone and trying to make sure you capture this sound.

You have spent the last hour thinking you knew what you needed to know just to be thrown a curve from a young girl singing your soul away after what was the most exciting live set you have seen all year, from Andreas. What a day…

Now it is time though. It is time to experience what you have been waiting for…

“I-I can only, I-I can only” you hear in your head as you prepare for what is about to happen. You have been waiting to see JoJo for over a year, you tell yourself. How exciting…

But in that moment… it begins to rain. You must leave…

Do you remember all the feelings you felt? Do you remember the joy?

Do you remember the thrill of community? Do you remember the strength afforded you by those around you?

Those are the moments that are reminding you to return, regardless of the rain. Come back and continue to live in that strength. Remember to live in that peace. Remember to dance through the rain and remember that it does not last forever.

For #PRIDE🏳️‍🌈 2021 let us focus on the strength we’ve gathered through 2020 and use it to love harder than ever!

Happy #PRIDE🏳️‍🌈!!!

Humanity
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About the Creator

Naomi Walker

Naomi is an active real estate agent as well as a new home construction sales and marketing representative. She has spent almost 5 years studying and learning about the housing market and is one of the top agents in her company!

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