[Theatrical Muse] Response
Control
There’s a lot to be said about control. The dictionary defined it as an exercise in restraint or direction over. It meant keeping her tongue in check. It meant not jumping to conclusions. It meant behaving herself. Most prominently, though, was that it was something that Sarah never seemed to possess. She would try. Sarah Jane would try her hardest to act like a proper lady. For some reason or another, it never seemed to last for long.
Perhaps it started at age four when Tommy Kneeborn insulted her parents. Without even thinking, Sarah shoved Tommy into the mud and then punched him hard enough to make him cry. She had been properly punished for losing control that day. But the lesson hadn’t sunk in. In fact, it had mostly been forgotten. Sarah Jane had been four, after all, with many greater events to come in her life.
As years passed, she made it a habit to ignore nonsensical rules. This two was, in some ways, a rebellion against control. While she understood why some people had to be told what to do, she didn’t understand why everyone had to - especially when it made no sense. So, she would break curfew, she’d trespass when she ought not to, and play rather dirty in field hockey. But it all made sense to Sarah. And wasn’t that what was most important.
But then Andrea died, and for the few short months following that event, Sarah found herself reconsidering control. She realized that, sometimes, it was important. That if she had kept her calm and hadn’t given in, that maybe her friend would have lived. That maybe, if Sarah Jane had exercised that control her aunt always talked about, they never would have wound up on that pier. She had been a daft fool with her foot lose and fancy free life. For the rest of her thirteenth year, Sarah was the primmest and most proper student her academy had seen.
It didn’t last. Nothing ever lasted long in Sarah Jane’s life. She returned to her lifestyle of jumping in to events headfirst. There was her first big scoop, that romance with Andrew, and then there was that moment that changed her life. Sarah Jane clearly wasn’t thinking when she decided to stow away in the TARDIS, just as she hadn’t been thinking when she had snuck into the think tank under her aunt’s name. She had disobeyed those in control and had nearly paid for it with her life.
But the adventures that came, the tumulus life style that followed shoved all control over her own life out the window in a way Sarah never imagined. It was, in her opinion, the best thing that ever happened.
There’s a lot to be said about control. The dictionary defined it as an exercise in restraint or direction over. It meant keeping her tongue in check. It meant not jumping to conclusions. It meant behaving herself. Most prominently, though, was that it was something that Sarah never seemed to possess. She would try. Sarah Jane would try her hardest to act like a proper lady. For some reason or another, it never seemed to last for long.
Perhaps it started at age four when Tommy Kneeborn insulted her parents. Without even thinking, Sarah shoved Tommy into the mud and then punched him hard enough to make him cry. She had been properly punished for losing control that day. But the lesson hadn’t sunk in. In fact, it had mostly been forgotten. Sarah Jane had been four, after all, with many greater events to come in her life.
As years passed, she made it a habit to ignore nonsensical rules. This two was, in some ways, a rebellion against control. While she understood why some people had to be told what to do, she didn’t understand why everyone had to - especially when it made no sense. So, she would break curfew, she’d trespass when she ought not to, and play rather dirty in field hockey. But it all made sense to Sarah. And wasn’t that what was most important.
But then Andrea died, and for the few short months following that event, Sarah found herself reconsidering control. She realized that, sometimes, it was important. That if she had kept her calm and hadn’t given in, that maybe her friend would have lived. That maybe, if Sarah Jane had exercised that control her aunt always talked about, they never would have wound up on that pier. She had been a daft fool with her foot lose and fancy free life. For the rest of her thirteenth year, Sarah was the primmest and most proper student her academy had seen.
It didn’t last. Nothing ever lasted long in Sarah Jane’s life. She returned to her lifestyle of jumping in to events headfirst. There was her first big scoop, that romance with Andrew, and then there was that moment that changed her life. Sarah Jane clearly wasn’t thinking when she decided to stow away in the TARDIS, just as she hadn’t been thinking when she had snuck into the think tank under her aunt’s name. She had disobeyed those in control and had nearly paid for it with her life.
But the adventures that came, the tumulus life style that followed shoved all control over her own life out the window in a way Sarah never imagined. It was, in her opinion, the best thing that ever happened.