A newly separated empty nester believes her younger self has moved in next door, and this is her opportunity to right some wrongs from her past.

SYNOPSIS:

On the day of what would be her twentieth anniversary if she wasn’t in the midst of a trial separation, Julia gets a new neighbor, twenty-one year-old Jules. And there are a weird number of parallels between Jules’s life and the one Julia was leading at the same age, right before she got pregnant and her life track was suddenly determined for her.

Julia tries to brush off these coincidences but they keep escalating. The only explanation she can come up with is that this has to be her younger self and she is getting a chance to relive her adulthood. Julia decides to lean into this theory until it is disproven and anoints herself the uninvited, surrogate mother to Jules, in an attempt to have a mother like she never had.

All of this is happening while Julia launches herself back into the work force in an industry that has not been waiting for her. She is no longer a wife and a stay-at-home mom, so the question is, who is she? Through Jules, she questions whether making different decisions in the past would have resulted in a different present. Would she be deliriously happy? Would her fears and doubts continue to haunt her? Would fractured relationships be sutured back together?

What you always hope for your children is that you can impart all your hard-earned wisdom, so they don’t have to endure the same painful lessons. But your children are their own people, and your sage advice doesn’t always land. But your younger self?! You should listen to your older self… Right?

SECOND STANCES