There were so many things that Aria loved and one of them was talking. As she settled onto her aisle seat, scrambling all the bags together she looked around for her fellow travelers. It was going to be a fourteen-hour ride across the Pacific Ocean, and landing in LA was going to be so much fun. Los Angeles, she thought, here I come. City of stars, I just can’t wait she thought. A self-confessed over-active thinker, her mind was boundless in energy as began thinking of all the possible things that could happen during her time in the city of Hollywood. Landing a huge part in a soon-to-be filmed television series, a Netflix Original, she was thrilled beyond belief. Her days in acting absolutely suited her persona, filled with tumultuous energy she never felt a dearth of energy and aptitude which got her from several universities plays to finally landing a fabulous role in this show. Produced by Tim Button, helmed by the star director she knew that this was going to be life-changing. She just couldn’t wait to get started, for the plane to take off, for landing in the capital of entertainment, to get on set, to start the filming, to read her lines, to do hair-make-up-clothes, to get an award, to reach the audience, to reach the Oscars, to land a commercial, to get into the floor of the Walk of fame, to meet with her idols, to be a UNESCO ambassador, to have charities in her name. Her eyes glistened as she thought and thought and thought. 

As a child Aria was shy, she was soft-spoken and looked over even, but then she had dreams, dreams of being in the shows that she watched, and being in the movies that she so keenly watched. Born into the digital age the reels dominated her life, everyone made reels, but real content was for the divas and she knew her calling from a young age, 12 even, and there she thought I am going to be the channel for brilliant stories, stories that make people sing, that make people sink, that make people learn, yearn and what not. Thus finishing school she packed herself off to acting classes, posture classes, and yoga classes and made her visualization boards, of the pacific ocean, mirror lights, center stage, lights, cameras, and of action. There was no room indeed for anything else in her life. Audition after audition she had her path set, she had her future thought out, she had her line rehearsed, and when the casting director of the yet-to-be-titled series by the acclaimed Button sent out a note to all drama schools, the note on the bulletin board caught Aria’s eyes and leaving none a second wasted she applied immediately, not only did they love the audition tape, they signed her on shortly and put her on a flight to LA.

Dreams do come true though Aria, one only has to dream. Saying bye to her world wasn’t tough, everyone at home waited to watch her on OTT. Who isn’t glued to OTT? Everyone waited with bated breath for their Aria to appear on their screens fashioning a well-remembered character. Thus knowing fully well that the universe had her back she marched on relentlessly. Now on the flight to LA, her dreams were literally one flight away. Her prudence had brought her thus far, she only thought about the future. And suddenly she was jolted into the present as a little girl tugged her jeans. “Hi”, she said, a tad cautiously worried about staying next to a child on a 20-hour flight. The little girl smiled, “Hi Madame, you and I are going to partner on a long flight home”. “Where are your parents”, Aria asked, continuing, “and how old are you?”. 

“I am Marie”, said the child settling into the seat and buckling up her seatbelt, “and I am 8 years old. My parents are sending me to LA to fashion the role of an heiress in a brand new television series by one Mr. Button. I am going to be famous. I am going to live a fabulous life. I am going to be in Hollywood. I am going to get on a fabulous life. I am going to be the cynosure of every eye. I am going to be on the Hollywood walk of fame. I am going to appear in a commercial. I am going to one day win an Oscar. I am going to earn zillions. Every brand is going to want to put my face in their commercial”, flicking her hair, she continued, “I am going to be a star, a truly and spectacularly glorious star, I am going to be something that everyone will marvel at, I am going to be idolized and fawned over”. Stopping albeit to catch a breath for a moment. Aria gaped at the child, she could have only been herself when she was much younger. As she gazed at the pretty child’s face, her life came tumbling into her head. The number of times she said I am going to, was not just insane but it was a call to the future. Am I so loaded with dreams thought Aria? Am I so into thinking about the future? Am I bending the universe into my rhymes and fancies wielding one vision board after the other not allowing the future to happen and the present to be? Oh my, she thought. It was a shock to hear everything that she ever thought of from another mouth, less than half her age. Ambition is a virtue when it is tempered. Seeing this child all of 8, mouth what she always felt, felt shocking. Maybe it’s time she thought, to stop thinking, and looked out of the window, into a cloudless sky just as the flight lifted off the runway. Dear Prudence, she silently prayed, may you leave me be to a tad of spontaneity, a little now and then, and let life happen to me rather than me happening to life. 

prudent

/ˈpruːd(ə)nt/

adjective acting with or showing care and thought for the future.
“no prudent money manager would authorize a loan without first knowing its purpose”