I believe that we all live in rooms that are meant for pitching movies. I think young adults are the pitchers for their movies and that we have all been in The Room.
The Room first came to me when I read "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter. The novel featured a Hollywood producer, a wandering musician, a misunderstood Italian, a dying actress and a story within a story that involved all of their lives. In the final chapters of the novel, there is a scene where the musician meets the producer and the dying actress reunites with the misunderstood Italian and a story is shared between them all. Needless to say, it did not take the quick-eyed producer to realize that this “incident” could be his next blockbuster, if only he could persuade the others. He was in The Room meant for pitching a movie. “The Room means everything.” As he put it himself, “When you are in The Room nothing exists outside.”
The Room: it’s where we think we have to go. It’s what we used to call the drawing board. It is where a plethora of college students declaring majors, high schoolers debating college, and middle schoolers choosing high school classes are currently sitting, maybe across from a guidance counselor they do not know, and probably choosing their forced fates based on the thoughts of others. So many adolescents are forced to map out their lives before they’ve even begun living, which leaves no room (theoretically speaking) for the miracles of life they have not yet experienced. They all pitch a movie, and they all say something close to what they want, but it’s nothing close to what they cannot yet imagine. They think they know the climax when in reality, they don’t even know the beginning.
Some adolescents pitch their movies defiantly, thinking they have all the answers that actually come with age. Others pitch them in confusion, unsure of everything. Regardless of how brave or how scared they sound, the same movie is pitched with a different title each time. It’s a movie about the unknown, a movie that features a wanderer hopelessly dodging her velleities and making way for a safe exit. But what she does not know is that the fall from the so-called safe exit takes longer than it does to search further into the unknown.
In the book, "Beautiful Ruins," the major theme was writing a story through the actions of your life and how it takes a lot of confusion and a little bit of wandering to find the true meaning. It talks about the collapse and the rise, how you need to lose before you win and the steps you must take into the darkness in order to find the light. Teenagers, we’re on that path. So choose who you listen to carefully because sooner or later they will tell you which step they think is best. Do not forget that it’s your heart that is taking you to all of these places and the small ones you visit along the way. These steps are dreams, aspirations and places you might not have encountered if you had allowed others to choose your path. Do not stop for the sake of someone else because the fall outside the unknown is greater than those from within. Your movie hasn’t been written yet. This is only the preview.
