Sixteen years and 9 months ago, I was seventeen years old and a brand new senior at
In October my mother begged me to go to the doctor… I couldn’t, for the life of me, think of why she wanted me to go. She made an appointment, telling me that she thought that I was pregnant. I denied it. Matter of fact, I felt great! I didn’t even consider the idea.
Well, the doctor confirmed it. I was pregnant.
Graduation became a priority.
As the semester wore on, my body started changing. Thank goodness that big shirts and stretch pants were in style, because hiding it those first few months would have been interesting. I was exhausted and getting up and ready for school was challenging, even more difficult after I was married in December.
Because of being pregnant, married and commuting from
At Bingham’s Young Mothers Program, I met other girls who were expecting and some who already had their babies. I met girls who were married, and some that were not. Some girls were keeping their babies and some were facing adoption.
I learned from them and their experiences, listened to what they went through during delivery and how hard their pregnancies had been for them. I am grateful to them.
I marched with my class in June, nine months pregnant. Two weeks later, I delivered the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met.
I’m not able to have any more children, so she is my miracle. It just happened at a weird time in my life! I was lucky to have an easy pregnancy, and an even easier labor and delivery, but I’m so blessed to have this wonderful daughter!
Happy Sweet Sixteen, my Princess!
My friend Darci posted on her blog her top ten list of stuff that is alright not to share with her kids. I’m inspired to do my version of it because her kids are still little and mine is a teenager.
So, here is my list of things that are just fine not to share with your teenager:
…and the time of most of my embarrassing moments, life changing events and serious learning experiences!
My “dream job” interview was located in downtown
I was out of breath, gasping for air as I pounded on the locked seventh floor door at the back of some office filled with cubicles. A nice lady opened the door, and I croaked out, “
She showed me the way to the lobby, where I sat trying to catch my breath and gazed as the elevator opened up to fresh smiling faces sizing up my near faint, exhausted display. I just knew that this was the worst interview impression ever in recorded history!
A few days later, knowing that I embarrassingly bombed the interview, I sent a Thank You Letter and swallowed my lump of hopefulness.
To my amazement, I got the job!
Later my boss told me that it was the Thank You Letter that won her over. Wow. Who would have known?
From the day of my very awkward interview to the last day that I spent with Simmons Radio Group, strange, but unique to say the least, events took place.
On a sunny Thursday in April 1999, a gunman walked into the Family History Library kiddie-corner from our office building and started shooting people. The buildings within two city blocks were in lock-down mode. So, we all plastered ourselves in the windows of our high rise office building and watched as the armed SWAT Team crept along the rooftops in black ant formation. We heard of a suspicious truck parked down the street that was being investigated for a having bomb inside. We watched as the wounded were loaded into awaiting ambulances and later as a field trip of elementary school aged children (my niece being among them) were escorted out of the building to an awaiting school bus. Not much work was accomplished that day.
Four days later (which happened to be my boss’s birthday), we listened to CNN’s account of the horrible Columbine High School Shootings. Our emotions were still raw from our own too close for comfort shootings across the street. Again, it wasn’t a real productive workday.
For several years there was construction along
We dubbed Monday as “Bride Day”.
Working with Nevah, my boss, was an experience that I can only explain by saying that I was spoiled rotten! She made work fun and I learned more about myself than I ever had before. Of course, the radio environment was exciting and I’m sure deep in my heart that I was meant to work there. Learning the radio lingo was a delight and each day was a new challenge, so it was never boring! I met some interesting people and some semi-famous people too. It was a job that will forever be marked in my memory as the one that I wish I had forever!
One rule that Nevah had was never to talk to her while she was on the phone. I usually respected this rule, except for one day in August 1999! A management meeting was going on in the
“Tornado, everyone get away from the windows!”
I left the receptionist desk to warn my boss who was on the phone. “Nevah, we need to get out of here, there’s a tornado coming!” I whispered to her. She only glanced at me so I said it again.
She replied in a hushed voice, “Kate, I’m on the phone!!”
I could already see the debris circling around in the sky and I was so scared that I just said, “I’ll be in the stairwell if you need me.”
Once there, I started thinking about how I needed to get to the bottom floor. I started running down the stairs, pulling each door shut that was open. When I arrived on the main floor, I heard the storm approaching and I stayed where I was until I heard it pass. Then I watched as it seemed to bounce over the
In disbelief and a mess of nerves, I rode the elevator back to my office. Nevah was sitting at her desk quietly working and I was afraid to ask her if she stayed there during the storm. So, I just sat down and tried to concentrate on some paperwork. Soon she looked over at me and said, “I can’t believe that I didn’t take that tornado more seriously!”
I was speechless.
A couple of years later our offices moved to Trolley Corners. The commute was just a little different with the freeway construction over and the 2002 Winter Olympics coming up within a year. We missed the Monday Brides, but welcomed better eating establishments at
Most everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001. The two hour time difference promised that we were all at home when we first learned that something had happened. Nevah is from the DC area so that was her “home” and she took the news hard!
At work, we sat in the downstairs lobby most of the day, glued to the television set and learned together that this had been on purpose. In the following days, Simmons Radio Group held a radio-a-thon and listened to others pour their hearts out on air. It seemed like everyone in the country needed a grief counselor. My most profound memory of that week was that the cast and crew of 'Touched by an Angel' brought in their payroll checks and handed them right over to support our country!
I was in awe of the down right 'good' in people those few days and weeks after 9/11. It made me so grateful to be there to witness it.
I never would have thought that the event would have an intense impact on me personally, but I was laid off due to the budge cuts and economic pressures that it placed on our business. Nevah was expecting her third child and she was quitting anyway. I was so sad to say goodbye! I’ve always felt I happened onto that job too early in my life. How was I supposed to get a different one after already having had my dream job?
No one in the
I ended up working at a bakery in Reams Grocery Store. I went from a wearing a suit and pumps to work everyday to jeans, ratty old t-shirts and black comfort fit shoes….but that’s an other story for another post!
I’m just not yet ready for my princess to be “Sweet Sixteen”.
I’m not ready for the state issued curfew of 12:30 am which she fully expects will be bestowed upon her. I’m not ready for those nights when I tell her to be home at 11:00.
I’m not ready to allow “driving around” just so she can feel the breeze in her hair or to listen to music as loud as possible. I am surely not ready for a car load of teenagers listening a thumping bass rap mix and texting while screeching down the street!
I’m not ready for boys to pick her up for dates or the inevitable conversations about why he should come to the door, introduce himself to me and my Hero or why I would prefer him to walk her to the door after the date is over. Heaven help me when she gets a steady boyfriend!! I’m so not ready for that yet!!
I’m just not ready for her to get a job where she will be under some boss’s rules about what time the shift will end or trying to explain the privileges and responsibilities of having her own money. I’m not ready to see what purchases will be made with her own money.
She’s growing up so fast. I only have two precious years to instill all the things I want for her before she’s an adult. Before she leaves this nest for college or wherever life takes her.
