Nicole Fisher
Honorable Mention
Romeo and Juliet 2.0
“Romeo and Juliet”, the iconic play by William Shakespeare, it is said to be one of his most well know
pieces. This tragic play deals with numerous accounts of love and loss leading to sorrow and pain. It is a
heartbreaking piece of text where miscommunications lead to devastating results; characters get slain and
people lose loved ones. However, what if it were modern times where social media rules the younger
generations? How would the story play out? For the better? For the worse? Would the two lovers get an ending
not ending in ruins?
Imagine it’s the 21 century when the two lovers meet. They exchange glances, Romeo might ask for
st
Juliet’s snapchat. It would start off subtle; her stalking him on Facebook while he's staring at her recently posted
selfie. It would progress into him following her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Finally, they would
exchange numbers and secretly date behind their parents back. Everything would be perfect right? Wrong.
Plenty of things can go wrong with technology: batteries die, chargers get lost, not to mention spotty
service. Go back to imagining Romeo and Juliet meeting in the 21st century, after meeting at a senior party they
exchange Snapchat and Instagram usernames until it leads to swapping numbers. The day after they choose to
meet at the local mall, they tell their parents that they're going to see a movie with some friends. They walk
around, maybe get a snack, then they go see a movie. They share their first kiss while watching the prequel to
Disney’s “Finding Nemo”, “Finding Dory”. After the date Romeo tells her he loves her and he wants to make it
official. Juliet decides she wants to keep it a secret from her parents because she’s only thirteen and they would
never agree to this preposterous idea.
For the next few hours they messaged each other switching from Facebook to Twitter until Romeo has
an ingenious idea. He believes that if they get married then Juliet’s parents would see how serious they are
about this relationship, and hopefully give them their blessing. Romeo assured Juliet that his mother wouldn’t
be concerned with his plan. At first, Juliet would be skeptical about the plan, but through Romeo’s persuasion
and the thought of already being married at such a young age beguiled Juliet. She would be the only girl in her
school married to an older man, she believed it would give her leverage and popularity over the other students,
so naturally she agreed.
To get their plan into motion Juliet seeks help from her old nanny to persuade the local priest to marry
the young lovebirds. The nanny went and visited the priest, slipping a little extra “dough” in the offering with a
note to the priest. He read the message and agreed to the lady’s wishes, Romeo and Juliet were to be married at
dusk. To fool her parents Juliet told them she was going to a friend’s house, instead she met Romeo at the
church and the service begun. Within the hour they were married under the Catholic church and they celebrated
with the few people they let in on the secret; this included the priest and the old nanny.
After the short celebration Romeo took Juliet back to his house where his cousins and closest friends
were waiting to celebrate with the young newlyweds. Juliet knowing that Romeo had informed some of his
family members about their secret wedding was concerned that his mother would be at the welcoming party, but
Romeo was quick to remind her that his parents were out of town on a company conference. This eased Juliet’s
mind so she was able to have a good time at the party and meet all of Romeo's closest friends.
Everything was perfect for that point in time; strangers conversing, drinking, and dancing like they’ve
known each other longer than a few hours. Unfortunately, time is constantly changing and nothing can stay
perfect. Perfect moments are like a bouquet of flowers when blooming the petals are a bright vibrant color, but
sadly after being in bloom the colors fade and the petals wither. Perfect moments are only around for a short
period of time, so through memories a person can remember the bright points of era. It was at this point that
Romeo and Juliet wanted a pause button to stay in the perfect world.
The morning after the wedding and celebration Juliet was called back to her house by her parents, and
the moment she walked through her front door, the perfect moment was gone. There standing in the foyer was
the biggest nerd of her class, Paris, a lanky be speckled rich kid, who believed he was the most important kid in
the world, at the young age of fourteen that’s a big ego for anyone to deal with.
Juliet’s parents declared that he would be her new tutor for Spanish, since the highest grade she ever
achieved in that class was a seventy three percent and that was on a picture. The introductions were made by her
parents, it’s not like Juliet didn’t know who he was already. After they were introduced, they sat down for
breakfast and that when Juliet became skeptical of the real reason Paris was there. She sat at the table eating
quietly while Paris told her parents all of his achievements. Juliet’s irritation was slowly escalating, yet she
didn’t blow until her father stated that Juliet should be more like Paris or even date him, her father was hoping
that some of Paris’s intellect and good manners would rub off and onto Juliet. It was at this time, Juliet
concocted a plan far more risky than Romeo’s, after breakfast was over and her parents had left for work she
FaceTimed Romeo on her iPhone. She believed that if she pretended to run away, her parents would feel terrible
and just accept her for who she is when she returned. Romeo thought it was a great idea and asked his mother if
Juliet could stay for a while. His mother agreed immediately, remembering when she was young and in love and
told Romeo that she wanted to meet Juliet right away.
After hearing his mother's reply Juliet packed up and moved into Romeo’s house, leaving a note for her
parents telling them she wasn’t coming home. For the following days she stayed with Romeo and his mother.
She learned his mother is kind, caring, and very understanding. Romeo’s parents had met in grade school and
became close friends, until they started dating in seventh grade, sadly one day Romeo’s father was killed in a
motor vehicle accident, so she supported the young teens love.
Finally, after five days had passed Juliet returned home to explain to her family why she left, she
decided to tell her parents about Romeo. As she approached the door to the house the “butterflies” in her
stomach were all a flutter. Upon entering the kitchen she saw her father and mother looking the most disheveled
Juliet had ever seen. Her father's light stubble had grown into a short, unkempt beard and her mother looked like
she hadn’t left the house for a week. As soon as they looked up from their meager breakfast of toast, their eyes
grew wide and they rushed to her side. “Where were you’s, we were worried, and I love you’s”, were thrown
out so quickly Juliet had no time to respond. Her parents suddenly grew silent and Juliet knew it was time to
explain, she sat them down and resolved her parents questions. To her surprise her parents were very
understanding stating they had been young and in love at one point.
Through the use of modern communication, Romeo and Juliet were able to have a prosperous
relationship, one that lasted for two months, until Juliet discovered all the girls Romeo had been texting besides
her. Cell phones and social media has positive and negative impact on most people’s lives. On one hand it is a
good way to communicate frequently, efficiently, and quickly to people across oceans or even across chairs.
Although when texting emotions cannot be displayed and messages get interpreted wrong. For modern Romeo
and Juliet social media and modern technology had a positive impact because the story would have been a
positive one, not ending in tragedy.