Influence in your 20's
Out of context: Reply #19
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- mg330
Moving to Chicago in 2001 at 23 after college graduation with no job, a dwindling bank account, and a rebellious spirit to not give up no matter how much my mom worried and constantly told me "give it a year..." and "if you don't have a job in a year you should think about moving home." Honestly, the first year I lived here was the most challenging of my life and the most exciting. It was the one time in my life I was poor, struggling to survive, find a job, resist begging my parents for money, not having that lifeline of my parents close by, and no family for 1,000 miles actually. First time I was really on my own.
That year is something that, as I've been here 10 years now, I look back on and wouldn't change a thing. i sometimes ate on $5 a week early on. Made a little more than minimum wage in retail. Freaked out to get a temp job making maybe $350 a week. Had the first and only one-night stand of my life with a chick who played Monster Magnet at ear splitting volume on her stereo while a monster doberman slept in a cage near the couch we slept on. Slowly had a little money to take out a girl I was dating who spent much more on me than I did on her. BEGGED my roommate for a slice of pizza if he ever ordered any for himself. Fought the urge to get a job waiting tables because I knew if I did it I'd never have the motivation to do something else - I needed to struggle to actually find something worthwhile. Had to pawn my cherished graduation gift of a Sony Mavica digital camera (1.6 mega-pixels, the one that recorded onto small cds) to pay rent. Performed singing and playing guitar for the first time in my life two weeks after we arrived here at a neighborhood bar and did that Monday after Monday that year and a few years after- the hard weeks were gotten through by the sheer joy of looking forward to playing again, and the appreciation people had for my songs after I played them kept me happy. So excited to have had my mom buy me a window unit AC. Moved from temping to being a law firm receptionist - benefits, 401k, stability, $29K salary and you'd think I was making a million I was so excited. Yeah I was a receptionist, but we all have to start somewhere!
The year got better and better, chased a girl I was totally nuts for but it didn't work out. Met my now-fiance/soon to be wife about 1 year, 2 months after I moved here and we've been together nearly 9 years. Lots of other great things happened after that first year but as I'm randomly writing this, I guess I would summarize that year by saying it's really the year I grew up and realized that nothing happens unless you make it happen yourself. The hard parts in life are what make you appreciate the good parts even more.