Part III: Chain Reaction Down the Track _ _ _ _/ l l l l l
B. I may have changed some things in the story
So I moved back home to South Carolina. Back in with my parents and brother Josh. Josh had been spending a year before dental school working and taking a break from school. That was the first time in five years that we were all living in a house together again. It was kind of a strange semester.
At USC I quickly scrambled to get all of my classes together since I didn't get official notice of my acceptance to the program until 10 days before the semester started. I didn't even ever meet with my adviser to discuss my schedule. State school was completely different from Harding. At HU I could drop by a professors office in the afternoon and talk. At USC I stalked two professor's office for two days straight and never saw them. So I quickly punched out a schedule. I was able to work it out so that I only had classes on Tuesday and Thursday. 15 (max) hours of Graduate school on Tue/ Thursday. I don't generally recommend it. I did manage to email my adviser and make some crucial schedule changes; two hours before the change deadline.
I was still living in North Augusta so I had an hour and a half drive to school and back. I'd leave the house around 8:30 am and get home around 10 or 11. It was a bit of a drive in the Jeep. I'd drive along I-20 listening to cd's. It was a long drive and gave me the opportunity to think about a lot of things. How much I missed people at HU. Random questions about life. But most of all I thought about how much I missed hanging out with Jane.
Meanwhile back at the hotel...(Ray Stevens Joke) That semester started at HU a week after mine. Thomas was back from his time in Africa. Jane had spent a good break at home in fla. Everybody sat back and began to watch the inevitable. Jane and Thomas were about to start their relationship where it had left off. At least that's what seemed like should happen.
Thomas came back from Kenya refreshed. It was a good way to spend a semester. He enjoyed his time teaching and helping out the missionaries. He was ready to get back to work in school. Everything was going fine. He rekindled his old friendship with Jane. Everybody was glad to have Thomas back. And Everybody was proud of Thomas.
This is where the problems began. See people starting viewing Thomas as something he didn't think he was. They saw him as a great guy who sacrificed a semester of school in order to help people in Kenya. Thomas didn't see it that way. In his mind he was tired of school and needed the break. Don't forget about his mom. Thomas needed the time away from everything to get his life back in order. He didn't decided to go because it was a great philanthropic thing to do, he went because he needed and adventure. But Thomas couldn't change people's perspective, something not easily or quietly done. It caused problems.
Jane was once again starry eyed over Thomas. She couldn't wait to start hanging out with him again. Jane was proud of Thomas for his sacrifice and really looked up to him. She told him. But Thomas didn't think he did anything spectacular. People started looking at Thomas as a spiritual role model. Thomas couldn't stand it. Jane looked at him as a spiritual role model. Very quickly Jane let Thomas know how she felt about him, and that she thought they should start going out. But Thomas was under a lot of pressure and he wasn't ready for a relationship quite yet. I think Jane took it really hard when Thomas told her that. But she still hadn't lost hope. Thomas just needed a little more time.
Lusterous Potate. I was still suffering school at USC. The only redemption for the semester was x-box night on thursdays and the fact that I got to spend a lot of time with Josh. The drives were getting to me. I felt alone in Columbia. USC was a big school and I didn't spend any time around campus when I wasn't in class. I didn't make many friends. And the drives were really getting to me. I would sit there driving along the interstate and I just couldn't shake Jane. I recalled the times we hung out eating and talking when we were supposed to be studying. I couldn't get her out of my head. I didn't want to try. I realized what had happened.
As far as I was concerned Thomas and Jane were probably already making wedding plans. Which was sorta cool with me. I mean Thomas is probably one of the greatest guys I know. I want my sister to marry a guy like Thomas. So I guess it was ok. But it still sucked for me. But that's not what was going on, and I didn't get the story until March.
I quickly figured out that my USC spring break was the same as Harding's. Excellent. Every year the guys from the 1106 house to a spring break road trip. I'd never been a real road trip. So I asked Thomas what the plans were and he told me something like "head west." Sweet. So I signed up for the trip. At first it was just me and Thomas in the plans. But soon we had a crew leaving for the west. So March roled around.
I decided to leave for Arkansas on Wednesday the week before spring break. It just meant skipping my thursday classes. I didn't mind. So I got to HU wednesday afternoon. Thursday night Jane and I hung out at Wendy's. Mandi and Michelle were there too. In fact so was Keke' Brooks but not at our table. Friday night there was a big get-together at the 1106 house. I decided to make milkshakes. So I made a bunch of milkshakes. For some reason nobody came and got any, except for Jeremy Stoneburner. Then Jimmy. I was a little depressed. Jane and I had also decided to watch "Garden State" together, one of her favorites. But she never showed. So I put it in and began watching by myself. It was very depressing. I was really sad. My hopes were high and the return stunk.
By this time I already talked with Thomas about what was up. He told me the whole story about he and Jane. That was when I concocted the milkshake and movie night thing that busted hard. Hanging out with Jane was hard. On one hand I love to tell her what I thought about her. On the other hand I didn't want to mess things up with Thomas; between us or he and Jane. So I fumbled around. I couldn't bring myself to say anything. I hated Garden State, because it told me I was a pansy and needed to just go for it. I couldn't.
So Sunday Thomas, Travis, Will, Jeremy, and myself took off "west." Nobody really knew where we were going. Will wanted to see the Grand Canyon, that was about it. It was a great trip. Thomas and I had some tension between us. Oh, by the way, I told Thomas what I thought about Jane and how I had slowly fallen in love with her. He didn't know what to say. He still planed on going out with her, just not right then. Our first lunch stop was in some town in western Colorado. We bought groceries for the trip and ate at a Taco Bell. It was at that Taco Bell that I decided that I was going to forgo any inhibitions I had about telling Jane what I thought. Thomas didn't know what to think. I don't think he liked the idea. But he understood.
So we got back into Searcy the next Saturday morning after a GREAT trip. Jane wasn't back in town yet. But she arrived that afternoon. I was staying in the 1106 house and she was next door at the girl's house. So we hung out that Saturday night. It was great. But I still couldn't bring myself to tell her. Sunday came too quickly. I need to leave so I could catch up on classes, but I just didn't want to. So we hung out all day Sunday. I told her I didn't want to leave. She told me I should stay another day. I would have stayed a whole lot longer if she asked. In fact I remember the next day thinking that exact thought, hoping she would ask me to stay longer. But she didn't and I went home Monday.
Pansied out again
B. I may have changed some things in the story
So I moved back home to South Carolina. Back in with my parents and brother Josh. Josh had been spending a year before dental school working and taking a break from school. That was the first time in five years that we were all living in a house together again. It was kind of a strange semester.
At USC I quickly scrambled to get all of my classes together since I didn't get official notice of my acceptance to the program until 10 days before the semester started. I didn't even ever meet with my adviser to discuss my schedule. State school was completely different from Harding. At HU I could drop by a professors office in the afternoon and talk. At USC I stalked two professor's office for two days straight and never saw them. So I quickly punched out a schedule. I was able to work it out so that I only had classes on Tuesday and Thursday. 15 (max) hours of Graduate school on Tue/ Thursday. I don't generally recommend it. I did manage to email my adviser and make some crucial schedule changes; two hours before the change deadline.
I was still living in North Augusta so I had an hour and a half drive to school and back. I'd leave the house around 8:30 am and get home around 10 or 11. It was a bit of a drive in the Jeep. I'd drive along I-20 listening to cd's. It was a long drive and gave me the opportunity to think about a lot of things. How much I missed people at HU. Random questions about life. But most of all I thought about how much I missed hanging out with Jane.
Meanwhile back at the hotel...(Ray Stevens Joke) That semester started at HU a week after mine. Thomas was back from his time in Africa. Jane had spent a good break at home in fla. Everybody sat back and began to watch the inevitable. Jane and Thomas were about to start their relationship where it had left off. At least that's what seemed like should happen.
Thomas came back from Kenya refreshed. It was a good way to spend a semester. He enjoyed his time teaching and helping out the missionaries. He was ready to get back to work in school. Everything was going fine. He rekindled his old friendship with Jane. Everybody was glad to have Thomas back. And Everybody was proud of Thomas.
This is where the problems began. See people starting viewing Thomas as something he didn't think he was. They saw him as a great guy who sacrificed a semester of school in order to help people in Kenya. Thomas didn't see it that way. In his mind he was tired of school and needed the break. Don't forget about his mom. Thomas needed the time away from everything to get his life back in order. He didn't decided to go because it was a great philanthropic thing to do, he went because he needed and adventure. But Thomas couldn't change people's perspective, something not easily or quietly done. It caused problems.
Jane was once again starry eyed over Thomas. She couldn't wait to start hanging out with him again. Jane was proud of Thomas for his sacrifice and really looked up to him. She told him. But Thomas didn't think he did anything spectacular. People started looking at Thomas as a spiritual role model. Thomas couldn't stand it. Jane looked at him as a spiritual role model. Very quickly Jane let Thomas know how she felt about him, and that she thought they should start going out. But Thomas was under a lot of pressure and he wasn't ready for a relationship quite yet. I think Jane took it really hard when Thomas told her that. But she still hadn't lost hope. Thomas just needed a little more time.
Lusterous Potate. I was still suffering school at USC. The only redemption for the semester was x-box night on thursdays and the fact that I got to spend a lot of time with Josh. The drives were getting to me. I felt alone in Columbia. USC was a big school and I didn't spend any time around campus when I wasn't in class. I didn't make many friends. And the drives were really getting to me. I would sit there driving along the interstate and I just couldn't shake Jane. I recalled the times we hung out eating and talking when we were supposed to be studying. I couldn't get her out of my head. I didn't want to try. I realized what had happened.
As far as I was concerned Thomas and Jane were probably already making wedding plans. Which was sorta cool with me. I mean Thomas is probably one of the greatest guys I know. I want my sister to marry a guy like Thomas. So I guess it was ok. But it still sucked for me. But that's not what was going on, and I didn't get the story until March.
I quickly figured out that my USC spring break was the same as Harding's. Excellent. Every year the guys from the 1106 house to a spring break road trip. I'd never been a real road trip. So I asked Thomas what the plans were and he told me something like "head west." Sweet. So I signed up for the trip. At first it was just me and Thomas in the plans. But soon we had a crew leaving for the west. So March roled around.
I decided to leave for Arkansas on Wednesday the week before spring break. It just meant skipping my thursday classes. I didn't mind. So I got to HU wednesday afternoon. Thursday night Jane and I hung out at Wendy's. Mandi and Michelle were there too. In fact so was Keke' Brooks but not at our table. Friday night there was a big get-together at the 1106 house. I decided to make milkshakes. So I made a bunch of milkshakes. For some reason nobody came and got any, except for Jeremy Stoneburner. Then Jimmy. I was a little depressed. Jane and I had also decided to watch "Garden State" together, one of her favorites. But she never showed. So I put it in and began watching by myself. It was very depressing. I was really sad. My hopes were high and the return stunk.
By this time I already talked with Thomas about what was up. He told me the whole story about he and Jane. That was when I concocted the milkshake and movie night thing that busted hard. Hanging out with Jane was hard. On one hand I love to tell her what I thought about her. On the other hand I didn't want to mess things up with Thomas; between us or he and Jane. So I fumbled around. I couldn't bring myself to say anything. I hated Garden State, because it told me I was a pansy and needed to just go for it. I couldn't.
So Sunday Thomas, Travis, Will, Jeremy, and myself took off "west." Nobody really knew where we were going. Will wanted to see the Grand Canyon, that was about it. It was a great trip. Thomas and I had some tension between us. Oh, by the way, I told Thomas what I thought about Jane and how I had slowly fallen in love with her. He didn't know what to say. He still planed on going out with her, just not right then. Our first lunch stop was in some town in western Colorado. We bought groceries for the trip and ate at a Taco Bell. It was at that Taco Bell that I decided that I was going to forgo any inhibitions I had about telling Jane what I thought. Thomas didn't know what to think. I don't think he liked the idea. But he understood.
So we got back into Searcy the next Saturday morning after a GREAT trip. Jane wasn't back in town yet. But she arrived that afternoon. I was staying in the 1106 house and she was next door at the girl's house. So we hung out that Saturday night. It was great. But I still couldn't bring myself to tell her. Sunday came too quickly. I need to leave so I could catch up on classes, but I just didn't want to. So we hung out all day Sunday. I told her I didn't want to leave. She told me I should stay another day. I would have stayed a whole lot longer if she asked. In fact I remember the next day thinking that exact thought, hoping she would ask me to stay longer. But she didn't and I went home Monday.
Pansied out again
posted by Paul Murphy at
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