Glory Days: Unraveling Michelle Martins' Past

19: Dream On

'What do you wanna be when you grow up?' That question had been haunting me for the past 15 years of my life. When I was born, my parents have already assigned me to a job, they even made a list about it.

The successor of our business empire

Opera singer

Orchestra

Olympian (Gymnastics, ice skating, synchronized swimming or all three)

Ballet dancer

Broadway star

And as you could tell, I am on my way to becoming all of those... except I don't want to be any of those. Maybe Broadway star but I don't want to take over our "business empire" or be a gymnastic. I don't know what I want to be, but I want to be anything but those. 

At this point though, it's just a matter of whether I would follow what I wanna do (which is far-fetched at this point) or following what they want me to do.

But as long as I am living under their roof, I have no choice but to obey everything they want me to do, including this. "We are meeting up with a few of our business partners from France and they are going to be having dinner here at the house on Wednesday. They are going to be bringing their children and I want you to befriend them."

I hummed and nodded, learning from last time that there is no point in trying to argue with them.

"This would be a nice way for you to practice your horrible French."

"And please for the love of god, dress up like you are a part of this family please." My father said while reading the newspaper.

Quinn looked at me while I just kept my head down, giving her the look to shut up and not say anything because it's far too early to be dealing with this shit.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Okay, guys, listen up. This is Mr. Ryan. He's a member of the school board, and he would like to say a few words. I-I just want you guys to listen critically and know that what he's saying is just one of many opinions."

We all sat in the choir room curiously the person behind Mr. Schue stepped forward and I tilted my head, recognizing him in some of the auditions for broadway before. "Take out a piece of paper. And on that paper, I want you to write down your biggest dream. A dream that means so much, you're afraid to admit it even to yourself."

I stared at the piece of paper Brittney handed me and thought long and hard for it. Finally settling with what I want to write, I gave the paper a hopeful smile. Santana, Quinn and Britt leaned in, trying to see what I wrote, but I turned it away from them.

Once we were all finished, we watched Mr. Ryan Bryan walk towards Artie, and crumpled his paper making us all gasp. "Your dream is never going to happen. Ninety-one percent of you will spend your entire life living in Allen County, Ohio. So unless you wrote down that your dream was to "work for a mid-market health insurance provider" or "find an entry-level job in an elderly care facility," you're going to be very disappointed."

"This is really depressing." I found myself agreeing with Mercedes as I kept staring at the paper, not noticing the stares my best friends were giving me.

"I'm going to guess that a lot of your dreams involve "showbiz." Well, let me tell you. Showbiz dreams are the most unrealistic of them all." I looked up and made eye contact with him. 

Tina huffed from behind me. "But... that's what I want to do with my life."

"Oh, look, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, I'm just trying to spare you disappointment."