Young Adult Life: Moving out, hard losses, and dating

This is week five of “My Young Adult Years,” guest hosted by Ginny Marie over at Lemon Drop Pie. Each Monday or Tuesday, I will be posting on my Young Adult Life edition of Mommy's Piggy Tales.

First Real Job -I needed a job to help pay expenses, and somehow I ended up at Sutherland's Lumber.  I didn't care for the manager nor his two younger (versions of him) sons.  He smoked a cigar, was  loud, like to brown-nose, and had a huge ego. I was one of the check-out girls and most of the time I really didn't mind it because there were other people there that made it bearable.   Winters were hard because hardly anyone came in - too cold to do building jobs, so that meant dusting the endless shelves and products.  Each time I visit Ace Hardware, I think back to those days and am thankful I'm no longer there. To this day, I will not set foot in a Sutherlands store.

After a year at Sutherlands, I was able to get a job on campus in the Curriculum Library and Resource Center, just a few blocks from our apartment.  It wasn't a terribly busy job, but afforded time to get my projects and homework finished for classes and get to know other students in my program.

Photography model

Moving Out and moving on  Through Campus Christian, I became friends with Shari, a graphic Artist major from Diamond Bar, CA, We lived close to each other, so I would pick her up on Sunday mornings on my way to church, sometimes we would stop downtown at a mom and pop diner for breakfast.We both struggled with our desire to attend the church where most of our friends did. The sermons and Sunday school lessons had us doing mental notes and thinking of other things and wishing we were somewhere else.  We just felt there was something missing and before long, we found ourselves driving up to Fort Scott to a Christian Church that my former College minister from Tyro ministered at. It was there we were challenged, welcome, and we loved the Sunday School class. During that Spring semester, she needed a roommate to share expenses with, so she asked me to move into her two room apartment (2nd floor of a 3 story house) with her.  What an answer to prayer!  Late night bike rides, long talks, aerobic class, endless fun, tee-peeing friends vehicles (I was the queen of that), and just a very relaxed time in my life.  Once she needed a model for some pictures for class, so I was elected and it was fun.  She was a messy and I was a neaty, and really enjoyed the year we roomed together. That summer she traveled to Paris, France for a summer study and I found myself a bit lonely, so I tried to keep busy that best I could, it stayed clean, I painted our entire apartment, and I worked at Sutherlands.

Picture by Strayer

After she returned, Shari and I thought we each needed a cat - so we visited the Humane Society and we each found one we loved.  Mine was a sweet fluffy gray kitten that I named Jesse and hers was a silly long haired tabby. Shari came home from work 2 weeks after we got them to find Jesse dying, in a coma under the couch, and he was gone before I could get off work.  We never knew what was wrong with him, but the vet said it was probably something from the shelter. Fearing her cat would be lonely (what were we thinking!), I looked in the ads for a new kitten and found this overweight short haired  black and white, 6 wk old kitten that I named Wesley, after the hero from Princess Bride. The lady I got him from fed him cottage cheese and goat milk - his poor belly touched the floor when he attempted to walk.  He quickly went on a diet, Shari's cat hated the Jesse!  It took about two months before they finally became friends.

It was during my time there, that I learned a one of the ladies from Camden that Mont and I called Mom Rivera, had died from diabetes and dialysis complications and it was very sad time in life. We had actually stayed with her family our first year there and grew close to them and their precious daughter. It was a great loss.


School:  Nearing the end of my college career, I was in my practicum - spending time observing in different classrooms, preparing lessons, being evaluated, and preparing for my student teaching.  One of my favorite classes was at the pre-school house on campus.  I think each of us looked forward to some "play time" with those kids, observing them interacting at each learning station, reading them books, taking them outside to play, and seeing what worked and didn't work.  They provided us with many hours of entertainment.  It was there that I first heard the Robert Munsch book "Love You Forever" and many years later, when I had children of my own, I would rock them and sing the very same song.

Remember last week when I wrote about the ooo-la-lah guy  that was really good friends with?  I must confess I probably flirted with him shamelessly and he teased me right back. We always seemed to end up by each other at lunches or other activities. I really liked him, but we were scared to take our friendship to the dating level because we had such a wonderful friendship. So that's where we stayed - good friends.  He never asked me out, and soon a friend of his asked me out and we began a year-long relationship. We had similar interest - journalism and he was on the yearbook staff, so I got my picture in the yearbook a lot that year. All his friends said they had not seen him that happy before, I met his parents, and it seemed life was heading toward something more,  Meanwhile, Ooo-la-lah guy graduated and moved to Memphis. No more night watchman, no more late night talks, and I felt as if I lost my best friend, even though I was dating this other guy.  Needless to say, we called it quits, and I moped briefly, but one day a mysterious letter appeared in our mail box - from the Ooo-la-lah guy.  His best friend lived at the campus house and let him know that I was no longer dating and he didn't waste anytime writing...

If you would like to read more Piggy Tales from other ladies, hope on Over to Mommy's Piggy Tales.   If you would like to join in and start recording your own Piggy Tales, contact Jana at Mommy's Piggy Tales to find out how  (jannajoy25 (at) hotmail.com). she has a second session starting up in October.  If for some reason you missed any of my previous posts, you can find them here.