Back To School

These past couple of years have been quite the experience. I graduated high school in 2007, I was eighteen and very excited to start my life outside of my hometown of Petawawa. My first year of university was very interesting. I began my university career by taking the Diploma of Worship Studies and Spiritual Formation program (also known as Introduction to Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies) which was headed up by Dan Wilt at St. Stephen's University in New Brunswick. Through this one year diploma program, I wrote a song, performed at the school's chapel services, made new friends, laughed and cried. I learned a lot about myself during this program, I learned that God isn't always what we imagine Him to be. I learned the true value of Christian relationships and that unconditional love and acceptance from people is possible.
Following my first year of university, I worked for the summer at Petawawa Research Forest. This was quite interesting, especially considering I am not a huge fan of Summer or of the outdoors. I really appreciate the experience of this job, as I discovered that the outdoors is wonderful. I would find myself mesmerized by the canopy of trees above and around me. So mesmerized, in fact, that I would sometimes forget that I would need to do my job.
After that summer, I had been planning on returning to St. Stephen's University as of September 2008, but when I went to see Mamma Mia on August 24th, I had a big decision to make. Would I go back to school? Or would I go to the city to try and live my Broadway Musical dream. My whole life, I had wondered if I could make it on the big stage or if Broadway was just some pipe dream. Well, I moved to Ottawa three days later and stayed there for three months. I was working full time at Tim Horton's and then took some Musical Theatre classes at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama. As much fun as those classes were, I could feel myself longing for something more. I had to go back to school - real school. January 2009 rolled around and I emailed St. Stephen's University and they welcomed me back with open arms. That January, I took a six course load, worked 20 hours at the school's library and 20 hours at Tim Horton's. That was the best time of my life. It was challenging, to say the least, and time management was definitely at its finest.
After finishing that term, I moved to Hamilton, Ontario with my friend Nikki. We were subletting rooms in a house for a friend of a friend. We couldn't find jobs and we were pretty much broke for the summer. I stayed there for two months, and got sick of being unemployed. I went to the local recruiting office and signed up to join the military. After a couple of weeks, I called my father to tell him that I had joined and he came to pick me up. I lived with him for a couple of months until I went to Basic Military training. I started in the military as of August 29, 2009. Within a week, I was injured. They sent me to Warrior Fitness Training to begin with, and I was just on restrictions, meaning that I couldn't do specific exercises. After about a month, I was sent to Adapted Warrior Training, where I was given specific exercises that were designed not to strain my injury but also keep me in shape so that someday I could go back on platoon.
I met a guy named Brian while I was there, he was in the process of his release due to his injury, so he was moving back to Oshawa, which was his hometown. After a couple of months of being at basic and having a long distance relationship with him, I decided my hip wasn't about to get better anytime soon anyway, so I may as well release. I was released as of February 2010, which is when I moved in with Brian in his house in Oshawa. I was immediately taken by his daughter and fell in love with his parents instantaneously. We lived there until Easter, when I decided I couldn't bear to continue on with him when he is unemployed and losing the house. I moved back in with my dad in Beachburg, Ontario. A few weeks later, Brian moved to Petawawa and we quickly found jobs and an apartment in Pembroke, Ontario where we lived for the summer. That relationship ended and I moved in with my mom.
While working for American Express in Pembroke, I made many new friends. Friends that I would learn to trust and to care for no matter what happens. We did everything together. We went tanning, grocery shopping, work, gym - I mean everything.
When I got fired from American Express due to a security violation (I had my cell phone out), I decided I had some choices to make. I had to either find a job, and fast, or go back to school and finish my degree. I applied for some programs online and also some jobs online. I got a job in Ottawa and moved into a house here at the end of January. For the past four months, I have been living and working in Ottawa, but I have not been really that happy. I have recently decided that I will be returning to St. Stephen's University to get my degree in Psychology and see where life takes me from there.
With these experiences, I have learned so much about life, people and myself. I feel as though returning to university will be a step in the right direction to get my life in order. I feel as though this university experience would not have been the same if I had done it all right out of high school. I believe everything happens for a reason and that these experiences of the past four years have made me into a different person. Someone who is ready to take on the challenge of university once again.