Well after the events of my life I wrote about in the Ugh… post last week, let’s just say that the rest of that summer wasn’t delightfully engraved in my mind as being one of the high points of my life.
Then school started back up again in the fall. It was now my junior year of high school and I found myself once more going back to hang out with my new beloved friends, the Heads (He Really Cares For Me). But the skipping of classes intensified, and I became quite good at forging my mother’s signature on absentee notes.
They came the day when I was sitting in biology class (hated it!), and the teacher suddenly came over and said I was wanted in the principal’s office immediately. Uh oh…
I arrived in the principal’s office, and there was my mother! The school had finally figured out that I had been absent a few times too many, and they decided to call mother to find out what was going on. Of course mother had been absolutely clueless about all this up to that day, and she was fit-to-be-tied.
What do you think you’re doing?
As mother and I continued to argue all the way home, I finally told her I was going to drop out of school because I hated it, and really didn’t need it anymore. You see, in my mind I really wasn’t learning anyway, so why stay?
I was actually quite surprised when she agreed with me, and told me that if I wanted to drop out, fine – however I needed to find a full-time job as soon as possible.
So drop out of school I did. I found a job rather quickly at a local pancake house, and worked hard – eventually working my way up to head waitress. I LOVED my job! I also made a new friend who I had a lot in common with, so I quickly dumped my old school friends, and my new girlfriend and I hung out all the time when not at work. See, I do know what I’m doing. I don’t need schoolteachers to tell me how to run my life…
My friend and I ended up renting a 3-bedroom “party” house together where we lived – along with a guy that my friend new. And party house it was! There were always people coming over, and we welcomed everyone as we sat around drinking, and listening to Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin and Cream albums. Whoo-yee!!!
But you know, despite my new job that I loved, and my new best friend, there was still an unhappiness in me… What it was I really didn’t know. So sometimes I tended to drink way more than I should have.
One night something new happened to me that I’d never experienced before. We were all drinking screwdrivers, and suddenly the next thing I knew my eyes opened with a start to find I was laying flat on the floor. My group of friends were surrounding me with wide eyes and scared looks on their faces. You see I had drank so much that I had passed out…
As my friends got me back in a sitting position, my best friend explained to me that it had all been so frightening that they had been seriously close to calling 9-1-1. Evidently I had actually stopped breathing – they thought I had died!!! [In hindsight I’m wondering why they didn’t call 9-1-1; what were they planning on doing with my body if I had INDEED died?]
Well I know you will have a hard time believing this, but I never drank a screwdriver again. As a matter of fact, not too long after that a new fry cook was hired at the pancake house where I worked, and as we started dating, I ended up eventually dumping my new best friend, as well.
And now began another brand new season in my life… Would I be any smarter?
The God Of All Comfort 