Journal #8: Subtext Scene

Marium wipes her hands on her face when she was done praying. She rolls up her mat, excuses herself for few seconds to put it away.

“I don’t know, I mean it’s a lot of risk,” Marium said as she fixed her hijab.

John brushes his ginger hair in a frustrated motion.

“This is our life we are talking about, we can’t let him make decisions for us, we are the ones who are going to have to live the consequences of his decision for the rest of our lives, NOT him,” John raised his voice.

As tears started welling up in her Kohl lined eyes, she replied, “but you know how he is; he is never going to accept your proposal.”

Upon seeing the tears starting to flood, John quickly, without any hesitation, threw his arms around her.

“I don’t know how this is going to work. Why can’t I have the one thing I want, more than anything else in this world? What did I do to be put in this situation? Why me?” she cried.

John in his comfort voice assured her, “It’s not your fault… life can be so damn unpredictable sometimes, but we just have to learn to face it.”

Her eye color now matched his hair. Looking up at John, she said in terror, “I am so scared to go against him.”

Still locked in their hug, John closes his eyes, and sighs, “Yeah… I know… you don’t want to hurt his feelings. I mean after all, he is your father.”

She started doubting herself again, “I wish there was some sort of a compromise, I don’t want him to be disappointed in me, I am what I am today all because of him. I wish I had the guts to say no him. I just don’t---”

“Look, it’s not like you are lying to him, the best way to handle this situation is to be honest with him and if he refuses, then we move on to our plan B,” John interrupted.

“I know it’s not lying but it is or would be an act of betrayal,” she responded.

John harshly explains, “If we try and fail, at least we can say that we tried, I mean by miracle, what if he agrees? And as for betraying him, I think it’s safe to say that we somewhat warned him.”

Marium wipes off her tear.

John sighs, “would you rather live the rest of your life, wondering what would have happened? Or would you rather live a free life….”

After a moment of silence, John slowly said in a low tone, "...with... me?”

Journal #7: Stalker Project

Character Profile Worksheet

Basic Statistics

Name: John Thomson

Age: 27

Nationality: American born Scottish

Socioeconomic Level as a child: Middle class

Socioeconomic Level as an adult: Upper middle class

Hometown: Madison, Wisconsin

Current Residence: Brooklyn, NY

Occupation: Editor-in-chief at the Daily News

Income: $65,000

Talents/Skills: Can play the flute

Salary: $65,000

Birth order: 1 older sister and 1 younger sister

Siblings (describe relationship): He talks with his sisters one in a while, just to keep each others up to date about their daily life.

Spouse (describe relationship): None

Children (describe relationship): None

Grandparents (describe relationship): Only has a grandma who he really loves and misses. They have a very special relationship because he feels like his grandma is the only one who understands him and she has been giving him support since he was very little.

Grandchildren (describe relationship): None

Significant Others (describe relationship): Never had a girlfriend

Relationship skills: Popular amongst his friends

Physical Characteristics:

Height: 4 feet

Weight: 105 Lb.

Race: Scottish

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Dark/dirty red

Glasses or contact lenses?: None

Skin color: Light pink

Shape of Face: Oval shape face and his head is bigger than his body

Distinguishing features: Has facial hair

How does he/she dress?: Wears knit hat, red flannel shirt, skinny jeans (folded at the ankle) and desert shoe.

Mannerisms: Very patient, curses a lot, and checks his phone often

Habits (smoking, drinking etc.): Both

Health: Achondroplasia

Hobbies: Watching the latest action movie, reading the news, playing the flute

Favorite Sayings: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Speech patterns: Deep voice

Disabilities: Dwarfism

Style (Elegant, shabby etc.): American Eagle Outfitters model style

Greatest flaw: Height and smoking habit

Best quality: Kind, caring, and understanding

Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes

Educational Background: Graduated with masters in Journalism from Middlebury College

Intelligence Level: Up to date on current events

Any Mental Illnesses?: None

Learning Experiences: He always found physics to be the hardest subject and loved English

Character's short-term goals in life: He wants a volunteer to do a piece on Sam Childers because he recently watched the Machine Gun Preacher

Character's long-term goals in life: Find an accepting woman to marry

How does Character see himself/herself?: He use to be embarrassed for being short, but now he is over it, in fact he embraces it

How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?: He is looked down upon a lot as he is not able to do a lot of the manly activities such as enlisting or reaching for something on top of the cabinet when girls can’t reach it

How self-confident is the character?: He deeply believes that one doesn’t need to be tall enough to reach their dream because what ultimately matters is their brain and character

Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?: He is ruled by logic and emotion

What would most embarrass this character?: When girls think of him as a little kid

Emotional Characteristics

Strengths/Weaknesses: His biggest strength is his brain and his ability to let his brain take control of his feelings. His weakness is that he worries too much about his future, whether he will find his Cinderella

Introvert or Extrovert?: Extrovert

How does the character deal with anger?: Smoking

With sadness?: Watches sad movies and cries during the sad parts

With conflict?: He says whatever is in his mind

With change?: Tries to cope with it

With loss?: Isolates himself and plays old memories in his head

What does the character want out of life?: Marry someone as kind and caring as his grandmother

What would the character like to change in his/her life?: A stop to social discrimination against anything

What motivates this character?: Peter Dinklage, because Peter Dinklage reminds him that nothing can stop him from getting what he wants

What frightens this character?: Spending the rest of his life alone

What makes this character happy?: Meeting someone who doesn’t judge and someone who understands him

Is the character judgmental of others?: Some of times, if he feels like the people are judging him

Is the character generous or stingy?: Generous

Is the character generally polite or rude?: Polite but can be rude sometimes

Spiritual Characteristics

Does the character believe in God?: No

What are the character's spiritual beliefs?: Apatheism

Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life?: He was born into Roman Catholic family and was baptized but eventually stopped believing in god because lots of his prayers as a child were never fulfilled

If so, what role does it play?: None

What does this character want?? Need? Wish? Hope?

His life is perfect, loving family and friends and his dream job but he just wants one thing. He wants being short or dwarf to be nothing or normal. He hates it when people stare at him from the corner of their eyes in public. He wishes people to stop pitying him at first because there is nothing to pity for being short. He hopes for the kids with dwarfism to stop feeling self-conscious about their height and learn to accept themselves as soon as possible.

            That’s it; this bitch has been starring for too long, it’s time to do the usual, stare right back at them in their eyes. Wow, this girl really didn’t learn any manners from her parent. I took off my headphones, and stared at her, “Yes, I am 4 feet tall, born with Achondroplasia, but you know what? My life is way fucking better than your ramen noodle every night life because this midget right here is the editor-in-chief of a newspaper that you can’t afford, so no thank you for your pity.” I plugged my earphones back in, pulled my knit hat from the back, wiped my Friscco by Steve Madden against the back of my jean, and dusted new flannel with swag, as I existed the train. Now that has ought to teach her some manner.

Journal #6

6a- Walkers are the easiest to kill.

6b- Refugee: Found My Purpose, Free Tibet

6c- Jenna could see it from then, her future with Aaron and the little versions of them running around screaming, though they are not a couple, the kiss that they shared, guaranteed her that he is her Prince Charming. There was something about that kiss that made her believe that he felt the same way about her too, but what can they do, time and place can be a bitch too. Her flight back to Basel leaves first thing in the morning the next day, not knowing when they’ll ever see each other again, just going back to that night was enough for her to wait for him. For two years, she saved whatever she could, battled against her girlfriends’ criticism, and finally, she was able to save enough to buy a one-way air ticket to Wisconsin. As she got into the taxi, her hands became colder than the winter snow, heartbeat faster than the train, face warm as freshly delivered cow milk. At first she stopped by the town church, where they kissed, to get blessing for what she was about to do, as she pushed the heavy doors open, behold stood Aaron in black suit, hand in hand with a girl in white dress.

Journal #5: In Medias Res

Wolfgang wiped off the sweat from his forehead again, while Jake was still screaming on top of his lungs from the excitement of riding the Anaconda. Wolfgang couldn’t shake off the fear of the consequences for what he was about to do. He had been burying his feelings for two years now but he finally realized that once he committed the crime of loving someone, there couldn’t be anything worse than that. So he practiced his confession for about a month now and decided today is the day. But now the caterpillars in his stomach is starting to bloom out of its shells and whenever he opened his mouth, his heart would just drop upon seeing Jake’s face, so his mouth closes again. Unsure about Jake’s feelings for him, Wolfgang finally managed to puke up those three words, the three words that have the power to change his image. Right that moment, the Anaconda speeded up the hill and all the sudden there, on the seat laid a bracelet and a condom from Jake’s pocket.