follow my footsteps

Working two jobs is a lot harder than I thought it would be. When I could only do swim lessons at one, while guarding at the other, I thought it would be no big deal but that changed today. My boss called me and told I was cleared to guard at the other pool so now I’m being asked to guard this week and my other job starts Friday so I feel horrible saying no. At least I think my bosses understand since I’m juggling two jobs, in two different towns, with an online course at yet another town for college, and getting ready to leave for my freshman year at Illinois State (go redbirds!). On top of everything else, one of my very close friends is deploying in August for seven months and it’s the longest I will have gone without waking up to his good morning texts or falling asleep on him. Life is just hectic right now. But at least I’m graduated from high school and my first semester of college with honors at both and I’ll be making bank this summer! Plus, I’m going to Gulf Shores at the end of June; how much better can a summer get? Although my future looks hectic, I know I’m ready for it and that I need to just take life one step at a time. Today, my mum and I went to go pick up farm fresh strawberries (gotta love the country, right?) but it wasn’t just a black and white, simple trip. No, instead we got lost, in the middle of the country between Marshall and Paris which means everything looks the same. We seriously drove for like twenty minutes before finally realizing my mum knew where we were. We were less than five miles from where we wanted to go. So know there’s nine cartons of fresh picked strawberries in the kitchen and my house smells heavenly. Oh and I found my future luggage today! Well, I found two different options and I absolutely hate decisions. One matches my Jeep, hunter green and made by Jeep, while the other is a beach at sunset that is totally cute, and way more expensive. Decisions, decisions, decisions… Oh well, swim lessons are tomorrow at ten in the morning. A new group of kids and I’m hoping this one goes as well as my last one did. Even the kids just all get in the water, it’ll be a huge improvement.

<3

Tomorrow marks my first day of swim lessons. The first time I’m teaching kids on my own, how to swim. There’s a big problem though…I hate kids. I thought I would only be guarding but since I’m not old enough yet, I can only do swim lessons. But I’m hoping tomorrow goes fine, even though I have zero idea what to do because I had two classes in how to teach kids before this! Thankfully, they all are young enough, 4-7, that they won’t notice if I don’t do the best job in the world. I just wish it was over already, it’s only an hour long but it’ll feel like forever I bet. On top of that, I have homework, yay for college. And I’m falling behind already, plus the teacher sucks majorly. Her cut off for an A is like 93 and a B is 87 and anything under a 70 is failing. Like, that’s not fun to work my ass off to keep an A in that class. But it could kill my GPA if I don’t get one. Oh well, it’s only three weeks long, then I get to have my summer! Well as much of a summer as I can have. Two jobs, swim lessons and lifeguarding, and prepping for college; that fills up my summer months this year. As much I don’t want to do all the work, I know I’m going to love having that money to blow on shopping trips to VS and AE with my roommate, Kaylee. Is it weird my roommate and my best friend have the exact same name? I didn’t think so. Oh well. I guess I’ll just get to see how all this turns out.

<3

Graduation is tomorrow night, twelve years spent in the same district and it’s all over. Although I’ve been done since December, it still seems unreal to think that I’ll never have a class again with the majority of the kids I grew up with or even see them for that matter. In the past twelve years I’ve had a lot of great memories, but I’ve also had my share of horrible ones. It’ll be nice to not be known as “Terry’s daughter” or “Travis’ little sister” anymore. At the same time, I’ll miss being able to recognize everyone and the feeling of a small town home. But I’m moving on to bigger and better things in a new town, a new home. I know Normal is my new home, but I’ll never forget Charleston. It’s where I grew up, and it’s where I learned how to be me.

<3

“Down where I was born 
Was Heaven on Earth.”

-Luke Bryan, We Rode in Trucks