This Will Be

Uno

           

Sophia Antonia took one cleansing breath as she waited offstage to enter the final interview for the foreseeable future. Sophia would have no more mornings that start before the sun rises to complete superhuman workouts or set appearances. From now on Sophia was obligated to wake up in time to teach her new students, who did not want to know the answers to the same ten asinine questions every reporter asks. The thought of those questions alone made Sophia groan in annoyance internally.

Sophia ceased her internal musings, and instead focused her attention on the roar of the crowd in Ellen's studio audience as she did her signature dancing segment with the crowd. She scanned the crowd and observed people of all races, shapes, and sizes dancing along to an old Black-Eyed Peas song.

"Two minutes until your entrance," a stage hand whispered to Sophia.

Sophia took a moment to steel her nerves. One of her idiosyncrasies was that she had to say a hail mary and hum the national anthem of Liechtenstein before every performance as a way to calm her jitters. After all her performances over the past few decades she still gets nervous as she anticipates entering the stage. She took a few deep breaths, and heard Ellen begin the introduction for her interview. 

"Now my next guest is someone you all know. And if you don't you clearly live under a rock. She is an academic, CEO, author, actress, singer, dancer, Olympian, pageant queen, and overall amazing chick. Welcome to the stage Sophia Antonia."

Sophia's dress flared out as she twirled onto stage to the beat, and she glided across the floor. The audience marveled at her elegant gait and her piquant stage presence. Sophia pivoted to her left to give an affectionate hug and a kiss on each cheek. Ellen and Sophia sat down, and Sophia beamed her pearly whites and waved at the crowd. 

"So you have had an exciting year.," Ellen said.

"You aren't wrong. I just tied up a lot of loose ends in my academic and professional career," Sophia stated.

"I heard you just graduated from Harvard. How many degrees does that put you at now?" Ellen asked.

"I did just graduate from Harvard with 7 different doctorate degrees. Previously I got my masters at Yale in Global Affairs and Comparative Literature and a law degree.  And that puts me at over a dozen. My undergraduate was done at Stanford," Sophia sheepishly announced.

Ellen was astonished and inquired, "What are you going to do with all of those degrees?"

Sophia in an attempt to prevaricate joked, "Well hopefully it will be some great wall décor since I hear the job market is tough these days."

As the crowd titters she took a sip of the coffee in the mug.

"But seriously what are you doing next?" Ellen asked trying to get more information from her previously evasive answer.

"Well one of the causes that is near and dear to my heart is education, which is the reason that I have never let my career interfere with my education. And the lack of accessible educational opportunities in California is a growing and endemic problem that I want to work to end. And this isn't due to teachers being profligate or prodigal consumers of resources, but rather all the good teachers are desiccating due to lack of resources and assistance. So as a result, I am going to become a high school teacher in California," Sophia announced.

"Well if anyone can fix the education system it is you," Ellen stated.

Sophia qualified her statement, "I don't think I am going to single handedly fix the education system. But I do think I can work to help my students reach their educational potential. That is a success in and of itself."

"Do you know where you will be working," inquired Ellen.

Sophia attempted to intimate that she had no interest in disclosing her exact location due to privacy reasons by stating, "Yes, but for now I would like to keep it under wraps to preserve the integrity of the institution and not add chaos to the lives of the students."

Ellen nodded and stated, "Well that is all we have time for folks. Thank you so much for being here, and I can't wait to see how teaching works out for you."

Sophia smiled politely and the cameras turned off. She exchanged pleasantries with Ellen, and then quickly got off set. She hopped in her gray BMW Z4 roadster to head to her new house in Freeridge that was just completely renovated. The moving company has already unpacked her entire house, and she paid a grocery store service to completely stock her kitchen. She was ready to take a break from her life of glitz and glam, and focus on teaching the future. She let her hair whip in the breeze as she drove along the California highway with her top down singing without a care in the world toward her new life.