Do you remember what sparked major life changes in YOUR life? I remember what prompted me to sign up for an online dating website–the one I met my husband through. I remember what prompted us to sell our condo and buy our house. That’s a call I will never forget. I was parked at my youngest son’s preschool, waiting for the door to open. (We were always early due to drop-off at the oldest’s school.) My husband called me and said, “So I was thinking while I was in the shower this morning that it is time to sell the condo and buy a house.” WHAT??? That was in April 2009. The market was bad and I never expected that we’d be able to sell. We were going to lose money and how much had yet to be determined. But we sold and bought a house and by September, we were in a house that I still love and never want to leave.
Sometimes crazy thoughts spark an idea so wonderful that you just have to act on it. Sometimes it takes a while to make those dreams and ideas realities.
When I met my husband, I had been widowed for about 14 months or so. I was 29 years old, with a 15-month-old and a 3-year-old. I was ready to date so I joined an online dating site. I figured it would make it easier to let prospective dates know I had children. After all, not every single person is ready for that. We were a package deal and that information was more easily disclosed online than in a bar, a setting that was NEVER going to work for me. I’m too quiet and reserved in a setting like that. I got flustered easily–I liked the idea of being able to initially communicate with someone with the backspace button available to me.
Because M and I met online, we have countless emails and messages from those days. I was looking for a file on my computer today and found some of those early messages. Back then, I was taking one class, a required art class, at another college in hopes to slowly get my degree. I was explaining that to M in a message and said I didn’t know what I was going to eventually declare as my major. On October 5, 2005 I wrote, “I don’t know what I want to do. I am only taking intro to art to satisfy a GER requirement-I have to satisfy a literature, lab science, an art, and philosophy and art was it this semester. I used to want to be a teacher (I was originally a French major with a minor in secondary ed) and I love being with children, but I just don’t know if that’s for me. I am going to look into communications as a possibility. We’ll see….”
“We’ll see.” How many of our decisions start out with “We’ll see”?
I remember thinking about Communications then because I had enjoyed working with the alumni office at my high school when I planned my 10th reunion the year before. I remember thinking that if I ever wanted to do something like that, a Communications degree seemed like a logical choice.
I ended up taking a philosophy class the next semester but had to put college off after that due to scheduling, finances, etc. But the spark was there then, and when I made the big decision last year to return to school full-time this school year, I didn’t really question what I was going to do.
I finally had the chance to make that dream, that “We’ll see”, a reality.
