When I was 19...

When I was 19 I lived here...

with 20 some other girls.  I had the position of House Manager so I had to make the laundry schedule, assign rooms, get the menu requests and work with the house mother to plan the meals and deal with any little things that came up around the house.  Living with 20 some girls in a house is interesting to say the least.  There was always something going on and always lots of drama!

When I was 19 Hurricane Floyd hit NC and flooded Greenville really badly.  They shut down school for 2 weeks.  Some people had their whole apartments flooded and all their belongings ruined.  Luckily I had went with one of my best friends to Raleigh.  We were the best of friends then and still are today!  This was us back then:

Since we were out of school for 2 weeks we went with another friend up to New York.  She lived on Long Island, but we got to go into the city.  I got a tattoo that day.  It is the Japanese symbol for happiness on my lower back.  Yes, I have a tramp stamp dang it.  It was a spur of the moment thing but we were young and in NYC and it seemed like a good idea at the time.  I also got to see the long-timer boyfriend while I was up there.  He was living with his sister in New York at the time.

We eventually returned to school.  Since my boyfriend was out-of-state at the time, I had to get a good friend of my roommate to get his roommate to be my date for sorority functions.  Here we are at semi-formal that year:

I am still very good friends with this guy.  His old roommate is my best friend's husband now and the guy in the pic ended up marrying one of the most awesome girls ever and she is one of my besties now too!  We are all are very tight knit group...LOVE YA CREW!  It is just funny to look back on this year because it was the year all those friendships and connections started!

It was a very fun time.  I got to experience the sorority from a different perspective that year.  I was living in the house so we always had to go to everything from socials to intramural games.  I got to experience the sorority side of recruitment (Rush).  I got to get my little sister and do the Big Sis Hunt for her.  It was a lot of fun and I was still silly back then, as were my roommates.  Here we are being goofy one night at the house:

That year I was elected Treasurer of my sorority.  I was still very organized even back then.  This was me one day trying to get all the financial files in order:

That was also the year my dad died of pancreatic cancer.  He had just found out about the cancer the year before I think.  It was like overnight he got sick.  Every time I would go home he would be more and more skinny.  That year at Thanksgiving he was in the hospital.  I hated being there.  He did not look like himself at all.  It was not the dad I knew and I hated seeing him like that.  It was almost a relief to have to go back to school.  A few weeks later I got a call early one morning and my mom told me he was gone.  I think I just said ok and went back to bed.  I didn't cry much.  I was so numb to death because of all I had went through 2 years ago and he had just been so sick...I hated even seeing him like that.  I had to go home early for Christmas break so I could go to the funeral and everything.  I was sad but also so numb.  I get more sad about it now because I wish he could see me all grown up.  I wish I could talk to him about my career.  I wish I could hear him say he was proud of me.  I wish he was here to walk me down the aisle one day.

That is about all I remember from that year.  I'm sure there was drama with the long-timer boyfriend...there always was and back then it seemed like the end of the world every time something would go wrong in our relationship, but now I can't even remember any of it.

I tried to find my journal from back then because I know my thought process was different than it is now.  I would have liked to read what my daily thoughts were like then, but I seem to have lost it.  Maybe it is for the best.  I think your brain only allows you to remember the really important stuff anyway.

When I was 19...

I lived in a sorority house.

I went to NYC and got a tattoo.

I was elected treasurer of my sorority.

And my dad died of pancreatic cancer.

I can't remember if I went home that summer or if I stayed in Greenville to go to summer school.  Either way, the next year would be the first time I got my very own place!