Sand Castle: Chapter 1

When you are eighteen, you feel you have all the time in the world, and your whole life is in front of you. When you are eighteen, you're flying free like a bird in the clear, blue sky, and you think, one day, the entire world will be yours. That's how I'm feeling at the moment. And I'm probably feeling no different from any other eighteen-year-old girl, with a head full of big dreams and plans for the future.

I know that sometimes life is not how we imagined it, and sometimes life doesn't turn out the way we had planned. Life is full of surprises, sometimes good and sometimes bad. Unfortunately, sometimes life is too short. It only takes one moment for our whole lives to be changed. In a heartbeat, we can lose someone we love, or we can meet someone new who will turn our life upside down. In a heartbeat, we can fall in love or fall out of love. Actually, falling out of love usually requires more time.

A month ago, I was accepted into the College of Performing Arts, and this autumn I'll be a college freshman. I'll be in a small class of actors, with four other girls and five boys. I already know them all because with some of them, I was making amateur theatre plays while I was in high school. Studying acting is something I have been dreaming about since the moment my father took me for the first time to theatre to watch a children's play. Then, I was only six years old, but I knew what I wanted. When I saw the actors on stage, I said to myself, "That's what I want to be; I want to be an actress".

While I was in high school, I skipped classes just to go to rehearsals in the theatre, and learn the craft from professional actors. That explains my poor grades in high school, but I don't regret it. I think I learned more about acting at the rehearsals than I'll ever learn at college. There is no need to mention that I don't have a boyfriend. It's difficult to find a guy who wants to go to the theatre every evening.

I'm glad that high school is over. That period of my life was a total nightmare. I wasn't one of these popular girls who dated a different guy every week, and everyone wanted to hang out with her. Most of my classmates thought I was boring, and they were avoiding me. Instead of supporting my ambitions, my professors were constantly repeating to me that I should care more about school and my grades, and less about the theatre.

This year, I hope everything will be different. I mean, different in a good way. College is a brand-new chapter in everyone's lives. College is not only about the knowledge you'll get, but it's also about the friendships you'll make, especially in my profession, where networking is everything. The friendships I'll make in college with the directors, the screenwriters, and the producers will help me have a job for the rest of my life.

The expectations I have for my future, are reasonable. After I graduate, I want to find a job in one of the many theatres in my hometown and become one of the best actresses in my country. Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, is the place I call home. I was born in this city, and in Zagreb, I have everything I need. My family and friends are here, and I would never leave this town for nothing in the world. Of course, I wouldn't mind if one day I get a part in some American, British, or French movie.

Right now, I love my life the way it is. It's simple, far from perfect, but I'm happy, and I don't want anything to change. But life never asks us if we want change. In every moment, life can surprise us. Changes are happening every day, and it's inevitable.

Before I go to college this autumn, as a present for finishing high school, from my parents, I got a month in Italy, to learn the Italian language. That was something I'd been wanting for a long time. For an actress like me, who lives in Europe, speaking foreign languages can be a tremendous advantage. I speak good English, and I'm fluent in French. Of course, I don't expect to learn to speak Italian in a month. I just hope I'll learn the basics, like how to order a pizza in a restaurant or how to exchange a few lines with the locals on the street.

Every day after my lessons, I come to the beach with my friends from the course. But today is a Sunday, and we have no lessons. I do not know where my friends are this afternoon. Everyone from my group is finding their own way to spend their time, and I have found mine. So, here I am, on the beach, alone, building a sand castle.

I looked around, and I saw I was the only person alone on the beach. Or maybe I was wrong. I think the young, good-looking boy, not far from me, who was reading a book, also had no company. I couldn't see from here what he was reading, but it must have been a very interesting book because he hadn't moved from his seat since I arrived.

Oh, no! He looked at me while I stared at him. That was a very embarrassing situation, and I think he looked at me again. Then he got up from his chair, he left his book, he moved in my direction, and I believe he stopped in front of my sand castle, but I wasn't sure. How could I be sure when I was just staring at the sand, like a complete idiot?

"Hi!"

He said, "Hi", but I was not sure that he said "Hi" to me. Maybe behind me stood a beautiful girl or someone he knew.

"You've built a beautiful sand castle."

Now I was sure he was talking to me because nobody else around me was building a sand castle. This was the moment when I should have said something. I should have thanked him, but I didn't know what was happening to me and why I couldn't say a word.

"Do you speak English?" he asked me politely.

Yes, I speak English, but I didn't know how to open my mouth and answer the simple question he asked. As I was struck by lightning. My heart skipped a beat, and I didn't know how to breathe.

"Yes," I mumbled something.

"Great! I'm Tom! What's your name?" he asked me, and he sat next to me on my towel without being invited.

"Nina."

It must have passed an hour before I told him my name. At that moment, I didn't know who I was, where I was, but something was telling me I was in the right place to be.

"Where are you from, Nina?"

"Croatia."

"Cool! You're not far from home; Croatia is on the other side of the Adriatic Sea, if I'm not mistaken."

"No. I mean, yes. You're right," I said, confused.

"I've never been to Croatia, but I have a friend who was there last year, and he had a great time."

"You should come one day to visit my country," I said, and my cheeks blushed.

"I will! Now that I have a new friend from Croatia, I certainly will."

I smiled, and for the first time since he approached me, I found the courage to look him in the eyes. He has blue eyes, like the deep blue sea.

"Are you for the first time in Italy?"

"No, I'm coming to Italy every year, but this is my first time being in Rimini."

"Cool! I'm from New York City, by the way. I'm here on vacation. And you? What is the purpose of your visit?"

"I'm here to learn Italian. I'll be here by the beginning of August."

"Lucky you! I'm going home next Monday. I spent three days in Rome and three days in Florence before I arrived here. Are you in Rimini with your friends or with your family?" Tom continued with his questions.

"I'm alone," I replied shortly.

"Me too! I think its cool being alone on a vacation. You have the freedom to make your own decisions, like where you'll go, what you'll do, where you'll eat..."

"You're right."

This was my first time being abroad without my parents. If I don't count last year, when I was for a day in Budapest, with two girl friends. I will definitely never forget that day for the rest of my life. We've spent the whole day arguing about what we'll do, where we'll go, and how long we'll stay. We've decided, I mean they have decided to go home with the last bus, but we've missed it. Since we didn't have enough money to go to a hotel, we had to spend the night at the bus station.

"So, what are you doing in life, Nina?" Tom asked me.

"This fall I'll be a freshman in college."

"That's wonderful! I began my studies at Columbia, but I dropped the college after my first semester. I decided to start a career. By the way, I'm a musician. I play piano, and I'm a lead singer in a band."

"Really?" I asked with admiration.

"Yeah! And what about you? What will you study in college?"

"Acting."

"You're an actress? That's awesome! Have you been in a movie or something? I mean, can I see you somewhere?"

"Mostly I'm working in theatre. I had minor roles in four professional plays, I played leading roles in seventeen amateur plays, and I was in a few television series," I said, and Tom realized that I love when I'm talking about my "big" accomplishments.

"Wow! You are a huge star!"

"No, I'm not! If I were a star, you would have heard about me. And I forgot to mention, I have won two awards by now!"

Of course, I haven't forgotten about it. How could I forget something so important? My awards, to me, are confirmation that I have made the right choice when I chose acting as my profession, and my awards are proof that I'm good at it.

"Wow! I would like to see you act."

"You won't be able to understand a word of what I'm saying, because I'm acting in Croatian."

"It doesn't matter. I would still love to see you acting. I listen to French, Italian, and Latino songs, and I don't understand them either, but that doesn't stop me from liking them."

"You're right. I'm also watching theatre plays in languages I don't speak, but somehow I understand the plays."

"We, the artists, speak a universal language; we don't need words to understand each other."

We sat and talked on the hot sand the whole afternoon. I mean, Tom was talking most of the time, and I was just listening when he was telling me about the things he saw and experienced in Rome and Florence. He was telling me about the art, the stunning architecture, the people he met, the food...

When the time came to leave the beach, he helped me pack my bag. As a real gentleman, he offered to walk me to my room, and all the way there, I was thinking about how to tell him that I would like to see him again. I had never in my life before met someone so interesting, smart, and funny like him. It seemed to me that he knew everything.

"Here we are! This is where I live," I said, a little sad when we arrived in front of the big green gate that led to my room.

"I had a great time with you," Tom said with a shy smile.

"I had a great time with you, too."

"We are both in the show business, and we have a lot in common. Plus, we are both alone in a foreign country."

We stood in silence and looked at each other for a few minutes. I'm a person who usually talks a lot, but for the first time in my life, I've found myself when I didn't know what to say. I wanted to tell him to stay, but I didn't know how to say it, or should I say it at all? The boys are unfamiliar territory to me. Luckily, he ended the unpleasant silence and said exactly what I wanted to hear.

"Hey, Nina, would you like to meet me again?"

"Yes!" That was the fastest answer I ever gave him, and I couldn't hide my happiness.

"Great! What do you say about tomorrow? Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow I'm free all day," I said without thinking.

"Awesome! Do you want to meet me in front of the clock tower at Piazza Tre Martiri at 10 AM? Do you know where that is?"

"Yes, I know!"

"Perfect! Nina, you have been in Rimini longer than me, and maybe you could show me some tourist attractions, or we could go to a beach to build a sand castle together."

"I'd love to."

"So, Nina, I'll see you tomorrow!"

Before he left, he gave me his hotel address, and we exchanged phone numbers. In a case if something stops us from seeing each other the next day, we make a promise to call one another to reschedule our meeting.

All evening, I couldn't get Tom's blue eyes out of my head, and I was smiling without even knowing why. I started counting the hours until I see him again. This kind of excitement couldn't be compared to the excitement of being on a theatre stage, or when I'm having an opening night. This was something different, and I had never felt it before in my life. This was something so beautiful and new to me.

When I told Tom that I didn't have plans for tomorrow, I forgot that tomorrow is Monday, and I have my lessons. Before I came to Italy, I had promised myself that I would never skip a lesson; I'd make my parents proud, and I would prove to them that I could be an excellent student.

Until today, I was the best and most committed student in my class, but how should I know that I'll meet a young American boy, and he would shake my world and change all my plans? Suddenly, I didn't care about my lessons. The lessons are not interesting as Tom is. I didn't care about anything else in my life. My only worry was to see Tom again tomorrow.