RAINELLE: (Narrator) It all started her, a cream-colored Victorian home you'd expect to be out of six generations ago. Mom taught us a bunch of skills, you'd love her. Like throwing me into a dumpster where bums thrown their beer bottles, that was the highlight of my high school career. Good punishment for getting an A- I suppose.
MOM: (Shouting down at the young Rainelle) A minus is a minus!
RAINELLE: (Narrator) I thank her everyday. Love ya heaps, mother.
Anyway, this is my story after Stanford graduation, when my mom thought I was about to go to med school she concocted ever since I was a fetus.
Instead, I didn't. That was the greatest decision of my life.
It was all because of one man...
Mr. Shaft.
SHAFT: (Against chalkboard scribbles random stuff) You understand that, Rainelle?
RAINELLE: Yeah, I guess.
SHAFT: You don't sound too enthusiastic.
RAINELLE: Is that a requirement for the grade? If it is, I'll be more than happy to carve a smile on my face.
SHAFT: You're a funny one, aren't you? Now, look at this. What are you learning?
RAINELLE: Differential equations.
SHAFT: Okay, but why are you learning this?
RAINELLE: (Thinking) I still don't know the answer to that question. All my life it feels as though my mother reached into my mind and erased my dreams as though residue on a chalkboard. Taking this calculus course was her idea. I wanted to study law.
RAINELLE: To graduate?
SHAFT: (Fingers on his nose) Rainelle, do you even want to become a scientist?
RAINELLE: Why do you care? You're just my professor. Isn't it just your duty to teach me?
SHAFT: And teach you to pursue your dreams. (Erases the board)
RAINELLE: Hey, I didn't write the notes!
SHAFT: I'll write it down later. (Grabs a chair and sits directly in front of Rainelle) Tell me about what you want to do.
RAINELLE: I want to make my mother proud of me.
SHAFT: Wrong.
RAINELLE: Wrong?
SHAFT: You've gone your entire life in the minds of others, but not yourself. That's how dreams die. You think you can't accomplish a dream because it won't make the people around you happy.
RAINELLE: (Thinking) Those two sentences hit me like a truck. Do you recount a single breath that changed your life forever? Because this was mine.
(NOW RAINELLE IS IN HER DORM AND CALLING HER MOM)
RAINELLE: Mom?
MOM: Sweetness, how are studies going?
RAINELLE: Good mom. Listen, I want to tell you something-
MOM: Don't tell me it's about the card I sent you. For the last time, they only sold the baby shower cards.
RAINELLE: No, it's-
MOM: Is this about Mr. Shaft? You know if he's not doing a great job teaching, I can-
RAINELLE: I'm dropping out!
MOM: What? Is this some joke?
RAINELLE: I'm dropping out of Stanford.
MOM: T-This is some joke.
RAINELLE: This isn't a joke. I'm sick of falling short on your expectations. You never complimented me on anything I did or congratulated me on anything except giving me a baby shower card written 'keep trying if you want to be top'.
MOM: But sweetness, you know how much this is your destiny...
RAINELLE: You mean your destiny. I decide how to live my own life, and this is my decision. And don't worry about student loans, I'll pay them all. More burden to your reputation of paying off your dropout daughter's payments?
MOM: You know that's not true, you could've studied something else...
RAINELLE: I applaud you. Did you major in 'give the blame onto someone else'? You never let me study anything else. Do you know how it feels to reach for something but someone else slaps your hand just because it's a stupid thing to do? That's what you've done to me for years, a decade, mom!
MOM: I never knew you felt that way.
RAINELLE: The best.
MOM: And I'm just trying to give a good future to you, Rainelle. If you can't accept that-
RAINELLE: Beer bottles?
MOM: (silence, maybe some sniffles)
RAINELLE: I don't care. I'm tired of this. Goodbye mother. Don't bother contacting me. Selling my phone anyway.