A monologue from the play by David Matthew Barnes
LISA (eighteen)
Lisa is an eighteen-year-old woman: intelligent, articulate, ambitious, and emotionally strong.
Here, she is in a Mexican restaurant telling her boyfriend Eddie why she is so determined to go away to college, despite his objections.
You’re wrong! I’m f***ing scared! I don’t wanna end up like my mother. I see her face every day of my life and it makes me sick inside.
I just look at her and I see my future. If I stay here, she is what I will become. She hates her life, because she never had one.
There’s nothing left of my mother but a broken heart. Esta muerto! She married my father because she didn’t have a choice.
But I do! I’m getting the f*** outta here, while I still can — and if you can’t understand that, then it’s your own damn fault!
No man is going to hold me back from what I want — not now, not ever! Chances like this — they don’t come along every day for a girl like me.
Look at where I come from! Look at my family! My brother is either locked up or fighting in the streets! My mother has to clean houses for the rest of her life!
My father can’t even read and he hates the world! I’m not going out like that! I don’t want to be a f***ing statistic! . . .
I never wanted to hurt you. Believe me. I love you, Eddie Cervantes. I wouldn’t have the courage to do this without the faith you put in me.
But I need you to understand this.
