Prompt: 2021
I recently had an audition for a play that dealt with time travel and raised the question of the way we look at our past and our future. In the play, a man builds a time machine and uses it to travel back to his past to try to convince his younger self to marry the girl he let get away. One of the main themes of the story was the idea that everyone only gets one shot at life. There are no second chances, no do-overs, no extra lives. If time travel really did exist, no doubt we'd all be tempted to go back to visit our younger selves and try to change the way things happened.
If we did travel back in time, however, we would never learn anything. There are reasons that we make mistakes or that things don't work out, even if we can't see those reasons when they happen. Without those mistakes, how could we possibly grow as a person?
I am a very organized person (as anyone will tell you). I'm always obscenely early to everything, my calender is always up-to-date and I stress more than is probably healthy about the "what if"'s when it comes to my future. Which, being an actor, is probably not the greatest trait to have. My entire career is pretty much made up of "To Be Decided", "Maybe" and "Last Minute". So yes, when I think about how in 10 years I will be 33 and pretty much "all grown up" I stress a little about where I will be at that time in my life.
When I was 13, however, I'm sure I was stressing about where I would be right now (though probably not as much, since 13 year-old-me wasn't quite as planning-oriented as I am now). I'm not even sure I knew what I wanted to do with my life when I was 13 (to be completely honest my entire middle school career is all one big blur). I was good in school, I had friends, I knew I liked singing and performing, but I don't think I knew that I could seriously pursue that in the real world.
My future has changed so much from where I thought I would be just a year ago, much less 10 years ago. Living in LA was one of the last things I pictured after I graduated December 2009. I imagined I would be in Chicago, performing on stage, singing in musicals, working on someday making it to Broadway. That is still a dream of mine and who knows, in a few years time I may end up in Chicago after all, or just jump straight to New York or I could possibly end up in LA for the rest of my life.
The point is: the future isn't meant to be organized or planned out (much as some of us wish it could be that easy). It's an adventure. An unknown. I hope that by the time I leave my 20's behind me I have developed a stable acting/musical career, be it in film, television, stage or voice overs and that I have found a niche for myself where I am happy.
I also picture myself owning at least one (if not more) dogs in a comfortable, pet friendly house/condo.
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