Following the Dream
I was a slow convert to Gilmore Girls. Having watched bits of Dawson’s Creek in college, I thought the shows would be similar in their soap opera qualities, and as a thirty year old with kids on the way, I didn’t really think this fit my interest level anymore. But my sister insisted I would love it, that Rory and I were so alike in our love of books, and I would flip for the good dialogue and the clever phrasing.
She wasn’t wrong, but honestly? It was Lorelai I loved the most, maybe because I watched a lot of the show when I was just becoming a mom, nursing while the DVDs rolled. My daughter always ate for a long time, so I could almost get in a whole episode while feeding her at 3 a.m. Lorelai was dead serious about the things that mattered the most, but she was also light-hearted and funny; she found childlike joy in silly things; she was young at heart; she was a pop culture nut (I wish I was); she lived on coffee and French fries. Everything about her was fun.
So when I found out that Lauren Graham, the actress who plays Lorelai, had written a novel, I had to get it. I found it in a favorite used bookstore and plopped it on my to-be-read shelf, where it has been for years. I don’t know why it took me so long to read it, but I’m so glad I decided to read it now.
Someday, Someday, Maybe is the story of Franny, a twenty-something struggling actress in New York City who has put herself on a deadline--if she hasn’t made significant progress in her acting career in three years, then she will give it up and go home. It’s a series of ups and downs for her, always one step forward and two steps back, but Franny is quick-witted and ever hopeful. Her acting talent is strong, but it’s her persevering spirit and her eyes always looking up that are the true stars in this story. It’s a novel for anyone who dreams of a life in art or for anyone who wonders what that might mean.
When I picked it up last week, I expected a light, funny read to give me lots of fluff to pad out a work week. There was definitely light humor. Much of the dialogue reminded me of Lorelai, as in some ways did Franny. She’s a delightfully spunky character who constantly gets into scrapes, but Franny felt like a character who would ruefully share her mishaps over a bowl of chips and queso, and who would help you get perspective on your own. She’s searching for truth, for what really matters for her, and for the right path to take toward her future, and this kind of journey, however sweet and funny, is never fluff.
One of my favorite parts was a piece of advice she is given from a friend: “That’s the thing that always stuck out to me--the idea that quantity becomes quality. I always took it to mean if you do anything enough, if you keep putting effort in, eventually something will happen...You don’t have to have faith when you start out, you just have to dedicate yourself to practice as if you have it.”
It’s such good advice for so many parts of life--for gaining skill at an activity, for the dreams we are afraid to admit wanting, for becoming the people we want to become. It’s the commitment, the trusting that if you like something, then the enjoyment is its own reward, and that enjoyment can be enough. We don’t always change the world right out of the gate, but the consistency changes something in us, which might--someday, maybe--change the world.
I’m older than Franny, and we have very different life experiences and dreams. But inside, I still feel her wide-eyed hope, looking up, looking out. The future is still waiting, still stretching out. Anything could still happen, if I will learn, like Franny, to keep my eyes on my own work and stay faithful to it.