Bud

INT. SHANE’S SISTER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW’S HOUSE - CONSHOHOCKEN, PA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - NIGHT - March 18th, 2025

Mar 25, 2025

INT. SHANE’S SISTER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW’S HOUSE - CONSHOHOCKEN, PA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - NIGHT

Shane and his FAMILY are spread around the open kitchen, paper plates of pizza crust and salad remains littered across the countertop. A half-eaten birthday cake sits in front of them as well, celebrating Mom’s birthday.

DAD: Shane you have to do your Rose, Bud, Thorn, too. Your birthday’s coming up soon and you won’t be here for it.

SHANE: Oh shit, it is, isn’t it. Um, okay…

Shane takes a minute to think.

SHANE: Okay, well, my thorn I’d have to say was my romantic relationship, my romantic life this past year. The on-again-off-again of it all. It was a lot of pain, and sadness, and waves of intensity. I don’t regret it, I think. I think it all happens the way it’s supposed to. So this is where I should be. But I learned a lot from it and I see how it has changed the way I view relationships. How I will go about relationships in the future. No surprise to anyone that I have a pattern. But my hope is that I learned enough from this one to break that pattern. So it is a thorn, but everything is in it’s right place. And I guess, in a way, it set me on this path. To my rose.

A beat.

SHANE: My Rose… I guess that’s pretty clear, but these past eight months. Traveling the world. I’ve been able to see so many beautiful places. So many breathtaking wonders, places and things I couldn’t believe existed.

^Atacama Desert, Chile - Dec 2024

^Huayuash, Peru - Oct 2024

SHANE (cont): I got to spend so many days hiking so many miles. Spending so much time in nature. In places that made me feel so happy, so peaceful. I got to meet so many incredible people. People from all over the world, people from wildly different walks of life and ages and backgrounds.

^Torres del Paine, Chile - Nov 2024

^Salta, Argentina - Dec 2024

SHANE (cont): I am just so grateful. I know how incredibly lucky I am to be able to do what I’ve been doing. To afford the ability to travel, to be able to do it safely and comfortably. To be fed, to be sheltered.

^Guijira, Columbia - Aug 2024

^Huyana Potosi, Bolivia - Nov 2024

SHANE (cont): And I am also really proud of myself. Proud that I took the plunge, took a chance on myself. Proud of myself for earning it. I worked hard for a long time to be able to do something like this. And I know it isn’t easy to do. And I did it. So I feel really happy to have given myself this gift. It really was a gift. I feel validated in making that choice, and in taking that leap. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Yeah, that would have to be my rose. It was a special year. My 35th.

^Jujuy, Argentina - Dec 2024

^Chicamocha Canyon, Colombia - Sept 2024

SHANE (cont): And, for my Bud. My bud is that I am looking forward to creating some stability. Creating some grounding. And creating something new. I don’t know exactly what it will look like but I know it’s close. Something to make and call my own. It’s so very close.

^Palenque, Mexico - March 2025

^Florianopolis, Brazil - Dec 2024

SHANE (cont): I was talking to my friend Jessie recently, and talking about that feeling of having to pee - stay with me here! So, you know when you’re on a car trip and you have to pee? If you know you have to wait twenty more minutes, you can hold it for twenty more minutes. But if you think you are only two minutes from a bathroom, you feel like you’re going to burst. When you know the relief is close, it’s harder to wait for it. And that’s how I feel right now. I know my thing is coming. It is so close. My relief is coming. So my bud, is that I’m ready to pee.

The family raise their glasses and CHEERS.