When I was a kid I dreamed about becoming a lawyer or a mystery writer. Neither which has happened up to this point. I guess I could be disappointed that I didn't accomplish my dreams from childhood but instead I'll explain how life can change your dreams. How life changed my dreams. I'm not saying that I'll never go to law school or I'll never write a mystery novel, what I am saying is that my life has changed and now I have more dreams for my life.
Some of those dreams include being an excellent mother and wife. Maybe I'll actually sell some of those pictures I've taken over the years. And yes, some of them are really beautiful not necessarily because of the person behind the lens (me) but because of God's awesome creation. Instead of writing a mystery novel, I'll write this blog and maybe publish a compilation of funny stories from my life. Most of those funny stories are courtesy of my children.
I wanted to write this blog so I could document how I arrived at this point in my life and so I don't forget all the different situations and experiences that led me here. It's definitely amazing how the smallest decisions can profoundly change the direction of your life. What may seem like an insurmountable obstacle in your life can actually teach you strength and faith. Once that obstacle is conquered you realize that your faith made you a stronger person than you ever imagined.
I could start at the very beginning to tell my story, but frankly that's a lot of years of information. I think that the best place to start this story is during my college years. I graduated from Texas Tech University and I absolutely loved it!!! I chose to attend Texas Tech for a simple reason. My dad didn't know any of the faculty or staff or so I thought. I was a very independent child and young adult. I wanted to spread my wings where my dad couldn't keep tabs on me. What I figured out during my freshman orientation is that my dad did know some of the faculty at Texas Tech. It was too late to change universities at that point so I was "stuck" with my decision. I'm so lucky that even though I made my decision on where to go based on getting away from parental supervision I ended up getting an excellent education and wonderful lifelong friendships.
I graduated Texas Tech with a degree in Public Relations and a minor in marketing. Not really a degree that would help me write my mystery novel or get my law degree but a degree that matched me. It was a good degree for me because I have always been a very social person and I have a knack for diffusing volatile situations. A match made in heaven as far as taking my strengths and matching them up to a specific degree.
Upon my graduation I realized that I really couldn't afford to live and have a job working in Public Relations firm. They make less than teachers. However, once you get further up the ladder it can be a very lucrative career. Another issue I ran into was I graduated in 1999, right in the midst of the Y2K craziness. Apparently all the computers around the world were going to shut down because they weren't programmed to understand a new century. I know for those of you who are young to remember this situation that it sounds absolutely nuts!!! And based on our knowledge now it is pretty nuts. But back then it was a serious issue to be addressed.
All of this leads me to how I came to take a job for a company that I never thought about working for and doing a job that I had absolutely no experience in. I had a friend who was working for a telecommunications company and she said they were hiring. I decided to apply for the job mostly because I didn't want to live at home with my parents any longer than I had to. I had just graduated from college and there was absolutely no reason for me to live with my parents. I was an adult with a degree. I was offered the job and decided to take the job with MCI as a long distance engineer. What is that? I'll tell you a little bit more about that job in my next blog.
