Making My Way Home, One Paw At A Time

The beginning of May brought the beginning of a new life for me. School ended, I left all my friends at school, and traveled home to Maine to start my life of chaos. I thought school was hectic. The way home was an interesting one for sure. I had planned on leaving for the airport to pick up my mother at 2pm. However, when I called my father to tell him that I was leaving for the airport, he informed me that my mom's flight was delayed by three hours. I was both discouraged and happy at the same time. I wanted to get home, but I also wanted to spend more time with my friends at school. I said good bye to my closest friends in the world, Lynnae, Kristin, Tim, and Jarid, and then headed up to another friends graduation party. Nate had graduated a year early and Mr. Rick, my "Wisconsin Dad," just happen to be his father so it was like spending time with family. I finally set out for the airport hours later. I made the loop a few times looking for my mother at the pick up, loading dock before a cop stopped me. Needless to say, I was a little nervous. I rolled down window and was asked, "Are waiting for your mother from Maine?" "Yes" was my confused reply. "Is your cell phone broken and that is why you can't contact her?" "Yes." At this point, I was a little creeped out. The cop then told me to stay put and left me waiting in my car very puzzled. In a few minutes, I saw Mom walking towards with another police man. She got in the car and explained everything. Her flight got in about an hour and half before. There had been a mix up and her flights got switched or something like that. Anyways, she couldn't call and tell anyone because she can't make nationwide calls on her cell phone. We laughed it off and started on our long journey from Wisconsin all the way back to Maine.

It was an interesting couple days that's for sure. I caught my mom up on all the things that had happened to me while I was at college. I explained the story of Wicked to her while we listened to the soundtrack. On the second day, we picked up my Pastor's wife, and drove to Connecticut so that she could ride home with her daughter. The three of us were pretty cramed in that car with all my stuff from school. And stuff was constantly falling on the person riding in the one seat in the back, but we had fun. We finally arrived home two days later and both crashed into bed for a quick nap before the evening service began. It was good to be home, but sad to be away from all my best friends. And this is when the chaos began.

Starting Monday, I began working 40 hours a week at a nursing home where I work as a per diem CNA. I was also working here and there at Moody's Diner where I am a waitress. Not even two weeks later, my sister Sarah graduated from college, and we traveled to Portland to watch her graduate from Southern Maine Community College. Then late in May, I went to see my cardiologist to see what could be done about my worsening heart condition. He suggested another operation for me to consider which I did. I am having surgery on July 23rd so please be in prayer. Also in May, I accepted a full time position at the nursing home for the summer and began a third job working for Hannaford Bros. Supermarket in Rockland. Ever since then, my life has been crazy busy.

At the end of the month, my baby sister graduated from high school. The entire family came up for her graduation including Sarah's fiancee. It was such a blast. Mom cried because her baby was graduating, and Virginia nervously played her clarinet piece which was beautiful. Mike Shrock gave an excellent challenge to the graduates, and so Virginia graduated. It's hard to believe that my little sister is old enough to be graduating, but she is.

Life is flying by so fast. I am now working anywhere between 60 and 80 hours a week between my three jobs and it is already July. The summer has gone by so fast which is both good and bad. Bad because I haven't saved nearly enough money for college yet and I will be leaving home again soon. But good because I will be able to see my friends again and start another year of school and be that much closer to graduation myself.