In drama Scene from one-act eplay, “Better Version of Jenny” Olga tries to get to the root cause of Jenny’s problems.

JENNY: It gets you high?

OLGA: No, it’s a herb, it’s a different kind of plant. And sometimes I’ll just chew on some leaves. I like the taste and it calms me down.

JENNY: I’m willing to try anything at this point. If eating leaves makes me smile, I’ll eat the friggin’ leaves.

OLGA: Start with the tea.

JENNY: Something needs to work.

OLGA: When did all this crap start?

JENNY: What start?

OLGA: Your unhappiness.

JENNY: I’m…well…I’m not sure. I haven’t been paying much attention to it lately.

OLGA: Well, what is one thing that could have triggered it?

JENNY: I don’t think it was ever any one thing…I think it’s been a series of things.

OLGA: Like what?

JENNY: Everything. Life. Career. I thought I’d be further along in my career by now. I thought I’d be engaged. I thought I’d have enough money to put down on a house. I thought I’d be in better physical condition. I thought I’d be smarter, more confident, go out more, live more, and I don’t know, be a better version of Jenny.

OLGA: But where does all this come from?

JENNY: It comes from me, who else?

OLGA: But where do – what’s the root of these thoughts?

JENNY: It’s everyone’s opinion, Olga. My mother, for instance. She’s always putting pressure on me to get married and have kids, or buy a house or get a promotion.

OLGA: And your dad?

JENNY: My dad is my dad, you know how he is, he just goes along with everything she says.

OLGA: You gotta live your life for you. You can’t get bogged down with trying to make other people happy.

JENNY: I know, it’s just that –

OLGA: No, understand what I’m saying to you, Jen. It’s cool if you want your parents to be proud of you and that they care so much about you that they want to see you make good in your life, but at the end of the day, if you aren’t happy, it doesn’t matter what you achieve, you’ll always be searching, you’ll always be unsatisfied.

You need to put yourself first, for once. You’re always out there getting yourself wrapped up in the world of others, always trying to figure out how to find out what they want, and you lose yourself in it. Forget all that.

You need to start coming to terms with who you are, Jen, and who you need to be, because if you don’t, you are going to spend your entire life confused and bitter because you never took the time for yourself.

And not only do you need to be loyal to yourself, but you need to have the confidence to be honest. For instance, if you are happy living in this one-bedroom apartment, then you are happy living in this one-bedroom apartment. You don’t need to buy a freaking house. If that’s not what you want right now, then you don’t need to do it.

If you want to date random guys, then date random guys. If you don’t want to date anyone for a while, then don’t, focus on you. Don’t force yourself to find a man just to marry in order to make your mother happy or anyone else happy for that matter.

This is your life. It’s not anyone else’s. Don’t let strangers, friends, family ever put demands on you that you don’t desire for yourself. You can’t live someone else’s life, Jenny. You can only live your own.

JENNY: I hope I’m living the right life, Olga. All these decisions, I hope they are right.

OLGA: And so what if they aren’t? We can’t all live by the same old rules. What’s the point of existing then? Maybe you need to make mistakes, maybe you need to f’ck up a lot more than you think you need to, to find your way.

JENNY: I don’t want to burden you, with all this heavy stuff.

OLGA: You’ll never be a burden to me.

JENNY: I keep worrying that perhaps I missed my chance, that all the good things that should have happened to me, have somehow just slipped through my fingers. Maybe I took it all for granted.

OLGA: And if they happened once, Jen… who’s to say that all those good chances won’t come again?

JENNY: You think they will?

OLGA: I know they will.

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In this one-act ePlay, Jenny gets advice from her best friend Olga on learning to live for her own happiness, rather than striving to achieve things just to make other people happy.

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