Prompt # 36 - Years and Years

Prompt # 36 - Years and Years

1966-67 was a pretty big year for me. I graduated from high school, and, at seventeen, left home, moved two hundred miles away to the big city, Winnipeg, where I knew no one, to start university. I changed faculties, from Interior Design to Arts, three weeks in, picking up two new courses, psychology and political science, three weeks after they had already started.

At commencement dance in the fall I met a person who turned out to be a criminal, my first encounter with evil, people hurting other people, and police involvement. I also met my first long-term boyfriend that year. In the spring, I moved into my first apartment with four other students, and started my first job as a car hop. I was so green, I tried to give back my first TIP, not realizing what it was. And another customer returned the first banana split I made on the job. I had forgotten the banana. I didn't really see a future career in food services after this beginning. I had to quit work to go to summer school, and before the fall term started, travelled to Montreal for Expo 67 and the Canadian Centennial celebrations. I travelled with my brother because my friend dropped out at the last minute, after the tickets were bought and the reservations made. So many changes. So much adventure. Sometimes I wonder, looking back, how I survived. And sometimes I wonder, how can I be so lucky?

As for the other, 1993-94 was another year of catastrophic changes beginning with my mother's illness and death, a separation, a major career change, and two moves. Crazy stress, not helped by a murder at work. But that second move brought me here, to my dream home in Hope, where I have lived for the longest of any home in my life. I will have to move, soon, eventually, but I cannot decide on any place I'd rather be, so I guess that's as good a reason as any to stay put until I'm sure. If in doubt, don't, right?