If you’ve been following along you know how this story starts but if you’re just joining today be sure to read part 1, 2, and 3.

With summer nearing it’s end Katie and I were all set to head to Texas. I was in the final stage of interviewing and it was between me and one other person. On a hot morning in August of 2008 Katie picked me up from my dad’s house, we ate breakfast, and we were off on our 3 day drive to Texas.

Sometime during the first few hours in the car I got a call and was told the position had been given to the other candidate. It was quite daunting. I was moving out of my home state for the very first time, I was jobless, basically homeless because we hasn’t picked out an apartment yet but yet I had the whole world ahead of me and I was with my best friend.  Those 24 hours in the car could have seemed a lot longer but we filled our time up gossiping about our summers and boys of course.

On day 3 we arrived in Austin and had a little accident with the car that resulted in a messed up muffler. So let me spell it out for you I was jobless, homeless, the car was broken, and we were in a very hot and totally new state. Ah! Things could have totally fallen apart for us at this point but we never really got down about it. We stayed positive and kept our focus on what to do next. Luckily we had booked a hostel for 3 days and that was our first home in Texas. We unloaded the car (all 8 bags or so) and set up camp. We swam in the pool and danced on the bed by night, searched for apartments by day, and had fun doing it all.

On day 2 we found a place to live, phew! Then I got right to looking for a job while Katie began her orientations for grad school. I would head to campus with her initially so I wasn’t alone and it soon occurred to me that I should apply for jobs on campus. I had some experience from my community college and that’s where Katie would be all the time so I started applying for a whole bunch of staff jobs.

While I waited around for calls I caught up on all the seasons of Lost in our unfurnished apartment. Maybe about 2 or 3 weeks after we arrived I got a call to come into the office of admissions for an interview. I was trilled. I had a pretty informal interview with a woman named Sally and I guess I made a good impression because she called me soon after to offer me the job! My parents were trilled because secretly they were freaking out for me. I would be if my kid just up and moved to Texas with no job and very little savings.

My position was part time and my boss turned out to be Sally (who I am now good friends with). The girl who trained me left about 2 months after I started and I was offered a full time position. I continued to work there for the next 4 years (my story continues within this 4 years).