Last weekend I helped daughter #1 move from Charlotte to Chapel Hill. She's in her mid 20's and has just changed her living location, has taken a new job, and has moved in with her boyfriend. Lots of "new starts" in her life.
As I drove home from Chapel Hill after her move I thought back on that time in MY life. When I was in my upper 20's (just about 2 years older than my daughter) I moved from Baltimore to Norfolk, changed my job, and moved in with my fiance (now my hubby). I remember so well that time, feeling the excitement of so much ahead. I loved the "adventure" I was starting out on.
My friends helped me move my furniture in a U-haul. Just 4 of us carrying furniture and boxes down 2 flights, making the 4 hour drive, and then going 2 flights up. What wonderful friends! I felt that my fiance and I had such a cool apartment - 2 bedrooms AND 2 bathrooms, a wood burning stove, tennis courts and a pool out the back door. We had a little back porch and bought a grill for it. We were walking distance from "Waterside" in Norfolk and some fun restaurants.
I made the move without a job in place (so kudos to my daughter for having one secured.) At first I joined a temporary job placement company. Remember "Snelling & Snelling"? Yep. I worked for them. They got me a job in a downtown bank, in a cubbyhole without windows, and I entered people's mailed-in credit card payments into a "computer". I use that word lightly. It was really a data processing machine and I had to enter in the account numbers, the dollar amounts, etc. AND then at the end of the day it all had to balance out. If not, we stayed til we found the mistake - and sometimes it was a long and frustrating process. Very stressful. I quickly started looking to find a job on my own.
Since I had worked in radio before, I looked for a radio job in the Norfolk market. I found one. Are you ready to go back in a time? I interviewed and got a job at WRAP Radio. The call letters were for rap music. This was in the mid-80's and rap music was a brand new fangled thing. So, here I am this young blonde-haired white girl and I get a job (trying to) sell time on an urban black rap radio station. What was I thinking? Ask me the name of one rapper from back then.... ? ? ? No clue! I remember going to an appointment at a client's office and he laughed at me! Pretty quickly I realized I was in the wrong place. I had to be "out on the street" as a sales person most of the day, just coming back to the office with my ad packages and orders. It was horrible! The one and only time in my life I played hokey from a job. I took long lunches and I went back to our apartment in the middle of the day.
Thank goodness my life was not all about my job. And, thank goodness the IMPORTANT part of my life was going so, so well. I was in love, planning our life together, working on making our "dreams come true."
I found out life (God) has a way of making each day work out. Right after we married, hubby got a new job, in a new location - across the country in California - and we set off together. Again, a new home, news jobs for both of us, and new relationships...AND new babies! Daughter #1 was born a year and a half after we moved out there.
And, now, she, daughter #1, is living the life in her 20's! I'm so happy for her, and proud of her, and excited for her!
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