An email from a long lost friend...

I received an email from a classmate from fifth and sixth grade. Her mother ran into my mother and emails were exchanged. We were really good friends back in the day...me a lil' black boy...she a lil' white tom boy...oddly enough.

And it reads:

my kids are taking a test right now so i have some time to write... where do i start???

i teach high school. this is my 2nd year. came here from the univ. of kentucky where i got an MS in athletic training. my BS in sports medicine came from georgia southern university. i played 4 years on a softball scholarship there and had an honors program scholarship as well. can't argue w/ 6 yrs of free school. i am actually taking classes again for a teaching certificate. i passed the exam to get a 3-yr provisional, but i have to take 7 classes to get a clear renewable (a.k.a. keep my job) certificate. now i'm paying for school, and it is harsh. but i like my job and the people i work with well enough to endure this brief period of suffering. but i swear when i get done with class this time, i will NOT go back for a long long long time.

i am also an athletic trainer at the school. i work with every single team here, boys and girls. there is another man i work with that is primarily responsible for football and baseball, leaving everything else to me and even requiring my help with those as well. i stay busy, to say the least. this year i am also serving as an assistant softball coach and probably an assistant basketball coach too. i have to be here anyway, so i might as well help out and get paid extra to do so. i am one of the youngest people on staff here, so some of the old ladies don't like me all too much, but the coaches i work with are awesome!

away from school and work (which isn't much, sad to say) i live in lake park. i bought a condo on a golf course where i live with my 2 animals. my personal life is finally getting settled down. kinda. i got married in june 2001. i had to leave him in may 2002. the divorce was final in january of this year. i have become a statistic. i never planned on it happening that way. i was going to fall madly in love and stay married forever... it would have made a good story, but i think that was part of the problem. anyway, that is a long long story that doesn't need re-hashing right now. so i'm single again and loving every minute. i have a good group of friends/coworkers here and we go out sometimes. but as you can imagine, going out down here is nowhere near going out in atlanta. i am a southern girl and living where it is quieter and a little slower is nice for me. although i think my life is still a little fast-paced for some people here. the general consensus around here is that i'm crazy... imagine that. i just like to enjoy my life and have a good time. i have taken up golf and really enjoy it. i also bought a motorcycle and am in the process of becoming a better rider. my most outrageous undertaking, however, is skydiving. i started in april for spring break and haven't stopped. i absolutely love it!!! there isn't much around more better suited to my personality than jumping out airplanes! i actually jump in thomaston up around atlanta. you'll have to join me one day. ;-)

in other news, i have a niece (almost 2) and a nephew (1 month) who live in chicago but are the absolute joys of my life. my oldest bro. and his wife live in atlanta but have no children. mom and dad are right where they've always been, but my dad is a preacher now instead of a farmer.

ok, so i have written a ton. lot's to catch up on from 13 years past, huh? write whenever you want/can. look forward to hearing back from you.

jk

My reply:

Wow! A lot has happened for you!

Free education!?! You're so lucky! While most of my undergrad was paid for...I still have loans that are haunting me from grad school. It's so depleting when you look at how much you have to pay back and how much you're making in your career. You're like, "Was it worth it!?"

I've had 3 jobs since I finished school (already!?). One was a TEMPORARY consultant, the other a program manager for a small non-profit that WENT UNDER, and finally the one I have now in research. I don't know if this is a good thing or not. I didn't technically get fired, but its just that the job market is crazy. Here today...gone tomorrow. I went 3 months unemployed. That was scary! I had bills and I found myself in the Department of Labor's unemployment office. I had lost any sense of pride. But those days are over...

I like the job I have now. But I, too, don't care for some of the people I work with. And I, too, am the youngest. So I know what that feels like. The co workers I have problems with are LAZY! And that includes my supervisor! He is such a procrastinator. I basically supervise him in a passive aggressive/reverse psychology kinda way. And he is clueless. I kindly suggest things for him to do, and he's like, "That's a good idea. I should do that." And I say to myself, "You idiot!?"

My social life is...interesting...to say the least. When I talk to people that I haven't seen in a while...I always get nervous about discussing my personal life. But I'm working on it.

Here goes...

Well, the past 6 years of my life have been me coming to grips with who I am and accepting me for me. I grew up in a really religious household (my stepfather is a minister). Whether I was with my mom's family or my dad's family...there was always this feeling of confinement. I don't fault any of them for it. I wouldn't change a thing about my childhood. But after I left for college in New Orleans, I experienced the first opportunity for independence and growth. I eventually "came out" and accepted the fact that I was gay. I told my mother and my father last year and they took it surprisingly well. They just have to accept the fact that there will be no wedding, no biological grandkids, etc. And my mother would prefer that I not tell ANYONE else. (hilarious!) So don't tell your mother who might mention it to my mother...blah blah blah. LOL!

I have been dating this guy off and on for about a year. Currently, we're on again. It's hard though. Sometimes I feel like it isn't fair because it'll be a long time (if ever?) before I can share my romantic life with my family and old friends. The social network I have now are friends from the last 6 years and present. So its easier.

I have a huge extended family because both my mother and my father are separately married with children. So that can get complicated. But I have four REALLY good friends that I met while in New Orleans. Two now live in Atlanta, one is in New Orleans, and the other is in New York. So that's how I get by.

I don't know if I'm the skydiving type!? That's too 'Road Rules' for me! But I may need the challenge...

I have to get back to work now. I hope this wasn't an overwhelming read! Write back!

me