TRAGIC COMIC Screenplay Original Notebook/Draft (1994)

Crohn’s Disease. Brain cancer. A drinking problem. College women. I was only 20 years old, but these were the obstacles I was dealing with. My feelings were that my life was playing out more like a movie, and my solution was to start writing about it. My hope was that someone struggling with anything similar to me might identify and learn from my battles. These are the pages I started to chronicle my story on back in 1994…

I thought the 1986 World Series was a logical place to start my story. It was the first time in my life that my heart broke. The first time I got so close to a dream I could feel it becoming real, only to have it crushed right before my eyes.

I also outlined the songs that I thought captured certain scenes of my life the best (I later found out you shouldn’t really write songs into a script unless the characters actually hear them – which I worked around). I still think Pearl Jam’s “Indifference” would be the perfect song for the opening credits.

After mentioning the 1986 Red Sox, my hospitalization for Crohn’s Disease when I was 14 was the first scene I could see playing out on the screen. It was something that would affect me for the rest of my life, and the first of several times my life was saved. I was impressed I was only one day off from my actual diagnosis date.

A lot has happened to me since I started writing TRAGIC COMIC back in 1994. Like I’ve mentioned before, it’s time for an update/rewrite. I know what it’s like to go through a lot of things, and I’m hoping my story can help people…

I know what it’s like:

* To be a middle child

* To have an older brother, older sister, younger brother, and younger sister

* To be raised Catholic

* To have Crohn’s Disease

* To be diagnosed with cancer (as a teenager)

* To be diagnosed with brain cancer

* To go through chemotherapy

* To survive cancer

* To have a drinking problem

* To be in rehab because of drinking

* To not have a drink in almost 16 years

* To lose three friends (aged 13, 20, and 31) to cancer

* To feel survivor’s guilt

* To be a special education teacher

* To have an engagement called off

* To be depressed and not enjoy things I usually enjoy

* To have a job I can’t stand

* To have a job I love

* To get hit by a truck while crossing the street

* To be sued by a best friend

* To live with ghosts

* To have a Jewish hero (not Jesus, Jon Stewart)

* To work with about 15 people that lost their battle with cancer

* To wear a different t-shirt every day for a year

I think that should give me enough to make TRAGIC COMIC more of a complete story…