I graduated from high school in 1987, and spent a month in Europe with an international choir that summer. After I returned, it was time to get ready for college. I had applied to several universities all over the country, but decided to go for my Associate’s degree at the junior college where my dad taught. One of the perks of being a staff brat was the opportunity to take classes early. Nowadays there are formal programs in place allowing high school students to take college classes; it wasn’t so common then. By the time I graduated, I had taken several credits worth of classes. I also took some AP and Clep tests, and earned a few more credits that way. By taking heavy course loads I managed to finish that degree in just 12 months. Insane. I know.

Going to junior college worked to my advantage another way: I was able to get a transfer scholarship to a university which paid all of my tuition and books. It was a 2 year scholarship so I was anxious to get as many of my classes done within that time frame as possible. As a result, I took heavy course loads again. I also worked at a part time job while I was there, because I still had to pay my living expenses (beyond the help my parents gave). In the end, I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Education degree in 3 years instead of 4.

Whenever I share that story with people just starting college, I strongly recommend not doing things the way I did. I spent the whole time working and by the time I earned my degree, I had been under a lot of stress for a long time. I worked so hard at the time because the certification requirements were changing for teachers, and I wanted to get in under the old program. Several years later, the state decided to revert all teachers back to the old rules.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.

Right after college I treated myself to a trip to Europe and drove myself around Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium visiting some of the families I’d met when I was there with the choir.

I didn’t date a lot of guys in high school or college; just a few really. During the summer of 1988 I met a man and dated him for the rest of college and then another year or two after that. We got engaged for a while, but the relationship just didn’t survive the distances. We lived about 40 miles apart while I was at university, then we were in the same city the first year I was teaching. Unfortunately, that first year teaching job was just awful.

I majored in Emotional Impaired (EI), which means that I taught the ‘bad kids’. They weren’t bad really, just didn’t behave well in school for a variety of reasons. The first year I wound up in a city school system teaching a self-contained class. That meant I had the same kids with me all day, even though I was teaching in a junior high building. Oh. Did I mention that I didn’t have a classroom?

Yep, you read that right. I had to push a 200 pound cart around from room to room, taking the kids along with me. Mind you, these were children who, by definition, needed a stable situation because they didn’t handle transitions well. Second period we actually held class in the cafeteria for half the year, until I managed to beg one more classroom for use. Yeah. That didn’t go well.  I can say that I got pretty good at breaking up fights, even when the combatants were rolling across the tables.

The kicker was that there was a room in the building that could have been used, but the principal didn’t want to accommodate me for fear he’d get another special education class in the building the next year. He frequently mentioned to me that I wasn’t a sacrificial lamb or anything like that. Interesting how often he used that phrase…guess it was his guilt speaking.

I did like the kids I was teaching, but I pretty much failed them miserably. The classroom situation along with my complete lack of experience combined to make a fairly bad year for everyone.  I actually considered another position before I got halfway through the year, but decided to stick it out.  When I mentioned to other teachers in the building that it just had to be better than this all I got was blank stares and a general reply that this is what teaching is like.  I just couldn’t believe that being miserable and causing misery was what teaching was all about.  I’m willing to bet that most of the regular ed. teachers didn’t understand how bad things were in my room.  Had they realized, they may have given me different answers.

Either way, I was outta there at the end of the year.  I found a job in a district a hundred miles away and didn’t hesitate to pack up and move.

I wound up staying in that district quite happily for 7 more years.  I started out teaching Learning Disabled students in the middle school (my favorite age group), spent a semester in the high school and another at the elementary level, and finally landed in another self-contained EI position.   I got that position when I was involuntarily transferred but after a few years of working out the kinks, I got into a groove and really loved my job.

My fiance wasn’t thrilled with the hundred miles between us, and he wasn’t willing to relocate with me, so the relationship ended.   At the time I was pretty crushed, but now I’m glad that things worked out the way they did.  I didn’t date very much after that.  Okay, until I joined a dating service in 1994, I didn’t date at all.  I went out with a few guys from there, but nothing came of that.

It was during this time that I worked some interesting summer jobs.  One year I worked in a factory making part of the PRNDLL on cars.  I enjoyed working somewhere that didn’t have homework, lol.  I also worked in a very nice restaurant waiting tables, and put myself through modeling school.  I worked enough promotional jobs to pay myself back for the tuition and walked away.  I wasn’t ambitious enough to chase down any big jobs, and that’s fine with me.  I do have some neat photos from that time.

I got started on my Master’s degree during this time as well.  Because I was teaching full time and carrying the part time jobs here and there I just took one class at a time and chipped away at that degree.

In early 1994, my pastor pointed out a man and suggested I consider dating him.  I took one look and said no way.  Later that year, I was helping the music leader direct the Christmas program and that same guy was cast as the lead in the play.  I got to know him enough to be interested.  The play ran in early December, and then he had the NERVE to not call me for weeks!  Can you imagine??

In January of 1995, he finally asked me out.  We dated for just a few weeks, and got engaged in early February.  We talked about marriage on the 5th, and he officially proposed on the 13th.  He would have waited until the 14th but I was having a rotten day and called him in tears.  He hurried out and bought a gorgeous vase of flowers and surprised me at home with them and the ring.  The wedding was that July.  Yeah, I know it was fast.  We were 25 and 30 at the time, had each been on our own for years and knew what we wanted.  I can honestly say that my life has been the best since I got married.  But I’ll tell you more about that in part 3.