My Trailer for 2018
Just last week I saw a meme that read: “Imagine if you could watch a trailer of your 2018.” That thought has stuck with me.
I love trailers. I will always show up to movies early so I can watch each preview. In many cases, trailers are better than the actual films. They highlight the most stressful, most action-packed, most climactic, most thrilling, and most dramatic moments of a movie—sometimes with a few deceptive twists that aren’t actually in the plot.
It’s no secret, 2017 has been a crapshoot for the world. I’ve had a lot of personal successes, but I’ve also had some failures and disappointments, and I’m just not sure what is going to happen next in the world. What will happen in 2018 evades everyone’s grasp. In past years, a better guess might have been within reach.
That said, there are a few things I know will happen (personally) in 2018 and a few more that I suspect will happen, and, oh, for dramatic effect, I can imagine a few more scenes that may unfold.
Because I don’t know how to operate video camera or CGI, I am reduced to words. But what follows is the script for a trailer of my upcoming 2018:
A black screen lightens to a blue sky with clouds. Wedding bells play. Not mine! (Like I said, trailers can be deceptive!) The camera follows the bride’s train, but we don’t see her face.
The scene transitions to a man frowning in the dark of his office. This is my adviser.
Then a scene where my adviser is standing and smiling.
A shot of me in graduation robes. (Can it be?!?!)
The words flash:
“Brought to you by the producers of 2017, 2016, and every year before that.”
Me holding a puppy in my arms.
Me crying. Just kidding. I wouldn’t cry! My eyes are wet. We don’t know why.
Me on a date (or at least it looks like a date! There are candles and we are seated across from each other!).
A tarot card is placed on the table. It is the Sun. The music builds.
A crying baby. I also hope this is not mine.
Me pondering how to tell someone to f*ck off in an email.
Me with a new haircut—or is it a new haircut?!
Clouds.
Portuguese streets. Waves pounding on a shore.
A jet flying over Spain!
The Paris airport.
Champagne on a French balcony. Friends laughing! (Yes, this movie is going to have a happy ending. Right?!)
Beaming on a gray morning.
Trudging down Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA.
Me chewing my cheek in front of a picture window.
My bird hissing in her cage. (Something like “O Fortuna” begins playing.)
A birthday dinner for a friend. Everyone sings.
A new email in my inbox. I sit down quickly to read it.
Me saying, “If you can’t forgive them, then you have to forgive yourself.” What foreshadowing is this?!
Celebrating a friend’s breakup.
Violence.
A friend crying. We won’t name names!
A tree with branches stretching into the sky.
Cirrus clouds.
My roommate laughing in our kitchen.
Sara in a dress about to go to a party or an awards banquet. I wonder where?!
Brunch laid out on a restaurant table.
A croissant in my hand.
Latte art.
My passport being stamped.
Me standing alone in the airport. (Drumbeats enter stage right.)
Driving down 460 West.
Splashing in the James River.
Legs intertwined in a bed. (We have to get that PG-13 rating!)
Someone tells a bartender, “Shaken, not stirred.” I follow: “Moscow Mule, please.”
Mike Pence on TV.
CNN announcing election results. A crowded bar staring at the screen.
Someone asks, “What are you doing after you graduate?”
My hand reaching out to turn a door handle.
Blades of grass coming in and out of focus.
Me sitting in a group interview and the head interviewer asks, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
A shot of me running down the sidewalk, eyes ahead, earbuds in. Where am I going?!
Across the screen flash the words:
“Coming to theaters this January: another year in the life of Cazey Williams.”
What does the trailer for your 2018 look like?
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