Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The First Day of Radvent


What were you doing five years ago today? As the holiday season began? Where were you? Who were you with? What did you want? What did you have?

Five years ago seems like an entire lifetime ago! December of 2005 I was living in Kentucky. Richmond, Kentucky to be exact. Going to school at Eastern Kentucky University. Weeks before I had learned that it would be my last year as I had my second to last advising appointment and the scheduling elves seemed to have been on my side. I was dating a guy who would become a very big mistake for me. At the time though we were blissful and not looking forward to spending the holidays apart.

One of the strongest memories I have from this time is building friendships with people that have become such a big part of my life. We were just getting to know each other and it was exciting to see that we were going to be great friends. I remember watching my 'nephew' who was really the young son of one of those friends. And I remember being excited that this couple was going to be having a baby in a few short months!

I know that after the holidays things started to move really fast at school as I was looking for a place to intern and trying desperately not to come home. I ended up coming home to work at a men's clothing store in town and I can see now that that was for the best. I wanted so badly to work in merchandising for menswear and I had no idea how to get there. After that internship I totally changed gears. The attitude of the people that I was working with had a lot to do with me leaving.

I moved on to the job I have now, which is the best job ever. It allows me to be creative and work in a place of great freedom with lots of tools. I love what I'm doing now and I'm sad that the future seems to be holding a move away from this place.

That mistake of an ex would later move to FL and we got engaged even when I could feel that we were falling apart. It took a whole year to summon the courage to walk away from that train wreck. But I gained so much, learned so much about myself and really put myself in a better place.

Five years ago I had new friends that are still such a huge part of my life, I had the freedom that comes with college and the fear that comes with seeing the end in sight, I had a loving family, I had a hand to hold. I wanted to break out, to do something great with my life, to be a success. I would say that I'm still on that same path except the definition of success seems to be coming into focus a little differently.

-Pamela Joyce

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Success is not only one thing, or one event. It is the many successes of our lives that build our character, and you have achieved many to date. Yet, have so many to discover and endeavor.