Moving to Portland
In 2005 I was teaching at a private alternative school in Balston, OR. I LOVED that job: not so much the paperwork and planning that comes with teaching, but working with teens that did not fit the “normal” bill. In October of that year I was informed that I needed to enroll in school as well as teach it. I was so excited to find out that not only did I get to go for my masters degree and teacher certification, I was going to be able to go on someone else’s dime! I went through the application hoops, took the MAT, bought my books, and in December I started a new cohort at Western Oregon University.
After my first term there I was elated to find myself sporting my first ever 4.0 GPA. My classes had all been about adolescents: psychology, learning styles and development. I had found my passion! I was eager to start the next term until I took the first term bill into my boss and she said I would need to pay it.
WHAT?
That’s when things started going south… and without realizing it, I took a bit of a trip downhill myself.
In an effort to take responsibility for things, I could have tried harder. I could have sought out financial help that didn’t come from the government or loan institutions… I was still struggling with loans from my bachelors so I just didn’t qualify for any of the standard financial aid. But I could have done more… I just didn’t.
I’m not going to go into the whys. I honestly think I’ve spent too much time already trying to sort it all out. The end all be all is that it’s in the past and I can’t do anything about it but move on.
Fast forward to a week and a half ago.
Details aside, I have been living with a friend from church for the last four months. SC was gracious enough to open her home to me when I literally had nowhere else to go… well, I had places I could have gone but they wouldn’t have been good places. SC and I had a conversation a few months ago about where I thought things were going and what my plans were. The living situation had always been temporary so this wasn’t a surprise conversation. At the time I was still working so I said I was pretty sure I would be out at the beginning of September, and that worked well for her because she had some wiggly little boys who needed the room I was currently occupying. Plus, September was when school would be starting so it would be a good transition time in general.
Cue sinister organ music, “Duhn duhn duhnnnnnn.”
Many of you know I’ve been having this weird stomach thing for a long time now… WAY too long of a time now. It comes and goes depending on the day, the hour, the stress level, the ph balance of my stomach, the ph balance of the food I consume, the barometric pressure (I’m not entirely joking about that). It’s a complete anomaly… (My doctor’s words, not mine, although I like being thought of as an anomaly… lol) Well just when things seemed like they were getting back to normal (I had almost 6 weeks without any major mishaps) I got sick… and I got it GOOD! I was out for 2 weeks straight except for one day when I hadn’t eaten anything over the course of 36 hours.
I’m a big girl, that’s a big deal for someone like me.
So the next time I was able to come in I was able to work for a week then missed another day and this time when I came back they sat me down and gave me, “the talk.” It was a legit talk, too. I have NO bad feelings toward my employer or about what happened.
Well, maybe one or two bad feelings, because I did find out after the fact that there were some discrepancies between what I had been told versus what was true.
But for the most part I feel like I was given a lot of help and my employer had gone above and beyond what they were required to do by law. So we had the talk, I got sick again, and I was asked to resign… “Or else.”
The, “or else” of course being a termination initiated by the company, i.e. YOU’RE FIRED.
Being the smart gal that I am I made sure I asked a number of questions before I said anything, I prayed, I sought wise counsel, and in the end with the assurance that I would not be denied unemployment benefits on the companies part, I chose to resign so I would have the option of coming back once I got things figured out with my guts.
So, now I’m unemployed, won’t start getting unemployment compensation until September and somehow I need to have enough money to move out…
Hmmmm.
Hmmmm.
Sigh.
Hmmmmmmmmmm…
One night in July I had to go turn in my badge and pick up my desk items from my former employer. As I sat in the parking lot talking with my WONDERFUL friend MT my former supervisor came out and said her goodbyes. We giggled and chatted and she asked me what I was going to do while I was trying to figure out what was going on with my guts. She asked if I would look for work. I told her I would try to find something, because it would be dishonest not to if I was collecting unemployment, but that I was also thinking about going back to school. She brightened up and said she would totally do that, especially since Obama had made it so unemployed people could apply to have their UI extended if they were going to school.
WHAT?
No really, that’s what I said.
WHAT???!?
So she explained and I picked my jaw up off the ground several times, and then MT got a little green around the gills from jealousy (tee hee) and then I stopped listening because my brain was going 100mph in a 30mph zone.
Okay, flashback to somewhere back in 2009. I’d had a conversation with a graduate admissions counselor from a school that shall remain unnamed. We were talking about what I wanted from a graduate program because I had realized I wanted to work with teens, but I didn’t want to be a teacher. He mentioned that there was a program starting at his particular school that would be great for me. Then he briefly mentioned that I could also consider a master of Social Work program, and that he thought there was one at George Fox University.
Back to the speeding brain.
After talking with my former boss in the parking lot I said my goodbyes and got in my car and started driving. Now, had it been daylight I probably would have driven to Newberg, marched myself into the GFU admissions department, and demanded applications for the university and graduate school. As it were, it was not daylight so I drove myself home and promptly got sick from all the excitement.
Fast forward to last week.
In between entering bills, perusing my Facebook page, and talking to Gruff, I managed to finally get online with George Fox University and apply to their MSW program… Scratch that. I managed to finally get online with George Fox University and realize, to my horror, that GEORGE FOX UNIVERSITY DOESN’T HAVE A MSW PROGRAM!!!
DOOM AND GLOOM!! DOOM AND GLOOOOOOOOOOM!!
Okay, calm down. Breathe…
inthroughthenoseoutthroughthemouth
inthroughthenoseoutthroughthemouth
inthroughthenoseoutthroughthemouth
inthroughthenoseoutthroughthemouth
Okay.
www dot google dot com
Search Google
MSW programs in Oregon
Portland State University School of Social Work Home Page
Welcome to Portland State University's School of Social Work! Our School is among the best in the nation. Educational programs, research, and community ...
www dot ssw dot pdx dot edu fwd slash - Cached - Similar
THANK YOU JESUS!!!
Okay, so from there fast forward to August 26, 2010. I’m sitting on my bed, praying with my eyes open about the fact that I’ve got 2 weeks to figure out where I’m going to live, and making pen circles in the air right above my journal page. I’ve already made one inquiry today that hadn’t panned out so I’m feeling a little discouraged. I decide to discuss, with a good deal of trust in my discussion Partner, the option of living in my car if someone will let me use their shower. Suddenly I get the idea of looking up rooms for rent online. So I plug in my phone… I love my phone… and do a general search for rooms for rent in Salem, OR. A number of listings come up but the one that catches my eye is Craig’s List because I know it loads pretty easy on my phone. I check out CL and there are a few Christian females in the Salem to Portland range who are looking for ME to rent their rooms!!! Okay, they didn’t say they were specifically looking for me, but you get my meaning. SO! I emailed them! I told them very generic information about my situation and after about 30 minutes of qwerty keyboard typing I was exhausted and decided to go to bed. Two hours later I am staring at the ceiling wondering if anyone else checks their email at 3:00 in the morning, but I resign myself to the knowledge that I’m a dork and I should cast my cares on Someone who won’t obsess over the like I do.
August 27, 2010. The only thing on my agenda for the day was a trip to Banks at 5:00PM to pick up a friend and bring her back to Salem, so I had ALLLLLLLL day to NOT think about my non-issues. Around noon I decided I needed to appeal to the masses so I attempted to write a note about what was going on, post it on FB, and then tag the people I thought would either pray for me, possibly have a solution or suggestion, or both. Funny thing, though. I wrote and posted that note 5 or 6 times and it never posted. It kept coming up with a server error saying FB was trying to fix the problem.
LAME! Crappy time to not work, FACEBOOK!!!
So I went about doing other things.
Around 5:00 I thought I’d call a friend who lives in Forest Grove to see if there were any possibilities of living situations. It was a no go: had I called a week or two before it might have worked out but now it wasn’t an option.
LAME!
So off to Banks, well, off to Starbucks, first, then off to Banks to pick up my friend.
Strangely enough I was feeling… not burdened… (moved maybe?) to head to bed early. I got ready and it was around 9:50 PM when I settled into bed, grabbed my journal and pen, and started circling above the page.
Oh! Remember to call KB.
Yeah, gotta call her, she lives in Portland and might have some ideas. What am I gonna write about??
Call KB.
Yep, gotta call KB and do that Facebook post tomorrow… I can do that when I’m at the office.
It’s 10:08 PM, call KB.
Oh, I guess I could call KB now cuz it’s a Friday and she would be up…
Beep boh beep bah beep boh beep beep bah boh
“Hello this is K.”
Hey, this is Steph and I haven’t really told anyone about this yet, but I know you’ll pray about it and I know you’ll tell me straight if you know of something… blah blah blah.
“Um, I’ve got a room available in my house right now…” etc. etc. etc.
Jaw drops.
Stephanie is momentarily speechless.
Stephanie giggles.
K giggles with and at Stephanie.
Stephanie and K hang up after some more discussion.
Stephanie updates Facebook status…
And the rest is history.
Postscript: I’m not going to be able to go to school immediately – at least I won’t be able to start the program. I can, however, start post baccalaureate classes and transfer in next fall. It’s the only way to start school soon – and by soon I mean January 2011. I have to take the GRE test and the study period for that is a suggested 2 to 3 months. I have to have all my application materials in by April so I’ve got a bit of cushion if I don’t do so hot on the first round testing. I will be in Salem Wednesday nights to Thursday to help with youth group (yeah yeah yeah, I know, likely story, right?) and help MJo out in the office, and one weekend a month cuz I just don’t think I can handle being away from some of you crazy people (Sunday school ladies you are at the top of this list) for very long. The move is neither temporary nor permanent, it is what I am doing at this juncture and the rest is left up to Him.
Any questions? You know where to reach me – Salem or Portland I am ALWAYS on FB at some point.
YAY FOR ME! I’m finally back on track after SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO long.
God is GOOOOOOOOD!
After my first term there I was elated to find myself sporting my first ever 4.0 GPA. My classes had all been about adolescents: psychology, learning styles and development. I had found my passion! I was eager to start the next term until I took the first term bill into my boss and she said I would need to pay it.
WHAT?
That’s when things started going south… and without realizing it, I took a bit of a trip downhill myself.
In an effort to take responsibility for things, I could have tried harder. I could have sought out financial help that didn’t come from the government or loan institutions… I was still struggling with loans from my bachelors so I just didn’t qualify for any of the standard financial aid. But I could have done more… I just didn’t.
I’m not going to go into the whys. I honestly think I’ve spent too much time already trying to sort it all out. The end all be all is that it’s in the past and I can’t do anything about it but move on.
Fast forward to a week and a half ago.
Details aside, I have been living with a friend from church for the last four months. SC was gracious enough to open her home to me when I literally had nowhere else to go… well, I had places I could have gone but they wouldn’t have been good places. SC and I had a conversation a few months ago about where I thought things were going and what my plans were. The living situation had always been temporary so this wasn’t a surprise conversation. At the time I was still working so I said I was pretty sure I would be out at the beginning of September, and that worked well for her because she had some wiggly little boys who needed the room I was currently occupying. Plus, September was when school would be starting so it would be a good transition time in general.
Cue sinister organ music, “Duhn duhn duhnnnnnn.”
Many of you know I’ve been having this weird stomach thing for a long time now… WAY too long of a time now. It comes and goes depending on the day, the hour, the stress level, the ph balance of my stomach, the ph balance of the food I consume, the barometric pressure (I’m not entirely joking about that). It’s a complete anomaly… (My doctor’s words, not mine, although I like being thought of as an anomaly… lol) Well just when things seemed like they were getting back to normal (I had almost 6 weeks without any major mishaps) I got sick… and I got it GOOD! I was out for 2 weeks straight except for one day when I hadn’t eaten anything over the course of 36 hours.
I’m a big girl, that’s a big deal for someone like me.
So the next time I was able to come in I was able to work for a week then missed another day and this time when I came back they sat me down and gave me, “the talk.” It was a legit talk, too. I have NO bad feelings toward my employer or about what happened.
Well, maybe one or two bad feelings, because I did find out after the fact that there were some discrepancies between what I had been told versus what was true.
But for the most part I feel like I was given a lot of help and my employer had gone above and beyond what they were required to do by law. So we had the talk, I got sick again, and I was asked to resign… “Or else.”
The, “or else” of course being a termination initiated by the company, i.e. YOU’RE FIRED.
Being the smart gal that I am I made sure I asked a number of questions before I said anything, I prayed, I sought wise counsel, and in the end with the assurance that I would not be denied unemployment benefits on the companies part, I chose to resign so I would have the option of coming back once I got things figured out with my guts.
So, now I’m unemployed, won’t start getting unemployment compensation until September and somehow I need to have enough money to move out…
Hmmmm.
Hmmmm.
Sigh.
Hmmmmmmmmmm…
One night in July I had to go turn in my badge and pick up my desk items from my former employer. As I sat in the parking lot talking with my WONDERFUL friend MT my former supervisor came out and said her goodbyes. We giggled and chatted and she asked me what I was going to do while I was trying to figure out what was going on with my guts. She asked if I would look for work. I told her I would try to find something, because it would be dishonest not to if I was collecting unemployment, but that I was also thinking about going back to school. She brightened up and said she would totally do that, especially since Obama had made it so unemployed people could apply to have their UI extended if they were going to school.
WHAT?
No really, that’s what I said.
WHAT???!?
So she explained and I picked my jaw up off the ground several times, and then MT got a little green around the gills from jealousy (tee hee) and then I stopped listening because my brain was going 100mph in a 30mph zone.
Okay, flashback to somewhere back in 2009. I’d had a conversation with a graduate admissions counselor from a school that shall remain unnamed. We were talking about what I wanted from a graduate program because I had realized I wanted to work with teens, but I didn’t want to be a teacher. He mentioned that there was a program starting at his particular school that would be great for me. Then he briefly mentioned that I could also consider a master of Social Work program, and that he thought there was one at George Fox University.
Back to the speeding brain.
After talking with my former boss in the parking lot I said my goodbyes and got in my car and started driving. Now, had it been daylight I probably would have driven to Newberg, marched myself into the GFU admissions department, and demanded applications for the university and graduate school. As it were, it was not daylight so I drove myself home and promptly got sick from all the excitement.
Fast forward to last week.
In between entering bills, perusing my Facebook page, and talking to Gruff, I managed to finally get online with George Fox University and apply to their MSW program… Scratch that. I managed to finally get online with George Fox University and realize, to my horror, that GEORGE FOX UNIVERSITY DOESN’T HAVE A MSW PROGRAM!!!
DOOM AND GLOOM!! DOOM AND GLOOOOOOOOOOM!!
Okay, calm down. Breathe…
inthroughthenoseoutthroughthemouth
inthroughthenoseoutthroughthemouth
inthroughthenoseoutthroughthemouth
inthroughthenoseoutthroughthemouth
Okay.
www dot google dot com
Search Google
MSW programs in Oregon
Portland State University School of Social Work Home Page
Welcome to Portland State University's School of Social Work! Our School is among the best in the nation. Educational programs, research, and community ...
www dot ssw dot pdx dot edu fwd slash - Cached - Similar
THANK YOU JESUS!!!
Okay, so from there fast forward to August 26, 2010. I’m sitting on my bed, praying with my eyes open about the fact that I’ve got 2 weeks to figure out where I’m going to live, and making pen circles in the air right above my journal page. I’ve already made one inquiry today that hadn’t panned out so I’m feeling a little discouraged. I decide to discuss, with a good deal of trust in my discussion Partner, the option of living in my car if someone will let me use their shower. Suddenly I get the idea of looking up rooms for rent online. So I plug in my phone… I love my phone… and do a general search for rooms for rent in Salem, OR. A number of listings come up but the one that catches my eye is Craig’s List because I know it loads pretty easy on my phone. I check out CL and there are a few Christian females in the Salem to Portland range who are looking for ME to rent their rooms!!! Okay, they didn’t say they were specifically looking for me, but you get my meaning. SO! I emailed them! I told them very generic information about my situation and after about 30 minutes of qwerty keyboard typing I was exhausted and decided to go to bed. Two hours later I am staring at the ceiling wondering if anyone else checks their email at 3:00 in the morning, but I resign myself to the knowledge that I’m a dork and I should cast my cares on Someone who won’t obsess over the like I do.
August 27, 2010. The only thing on my agenda for the day was a trip to Banks at 5:00PM to pick up a friend and bring her back to Salem, so I had ALLLLLLLL day to NOT think about my non-issues. Around noon I decided I needed to appeal to the masses so I attempted to write a note about what was going on, post it on FB, and then tag the people I thought would either pray for me, possibly have a solution or suggestion, or both. Funny thing, though. I wrote and posted that note 5 or 6 times and it never posted. It kept coming up with a server error saying FB was trying to fix the problem.
LAME! Crappy time to not work, FACEBOOK!!!
So I went about doing other things.
Around 5:00 I thought I’d call a friend who lives in Forest Grove to see if there were any possibilities of living situations. It was a no go: had I called a week or two before it might have worked out but now it wasn’t an option.
LAME!
So off to Banks, well, off to Starbucks, first, then off to Banks to pick up my friend.
Strangely enough I was feeling… not burdened… (moved maybe?) to head to bed early. I got ready and it was around 9:50 PM when I settled into bed, grabbed my journal and pen, and started circling above the page.
Oh! Remember to call KB.
Yeah, gotta call her, she lives in Portland and might have some ideas. What am I gonna write about??
Call KB.
Yep, gotta call KB and do that Facebook post tomorrow… I can do that when I’m at the office.
It’s 10:08 PM, call KB.
Oh, I guess I could call KB now cuz it’s a Friday and she would be up…
Beep boh beep bah beep boh beep beep bah boh
“Hello this is K.”
Hey, this is Steph and I haven’t really told anyone about this yet, but I know you’ll pray about it and I know you’ll tell me straight if you know of something… blah blah blah.
“Um, I’ve got a room available in my house right now…” etc. etc. etc.
Jaw drops.
Stephanie is momentarily speechless.
Stephanie giggles.
K giggles with and at Stephanie.
Stephanie and K hang up after some more discussion.
Stephanie updates Facebook status…
And the rest is history.
Postscript: I’m not going to be able to go to school immediately – at least I won’t be able to start the program. I can, however, start post baccalaureate classes and transfer in next fall. It’s the only way to start school soon – and by soon I mean January 2011. I have to take the GRE test and the study period for that is a suggested 2 to 3 months. I have to have all my application materials in by April so I’ve got a bit of cushion if I don’t do so hot on the first round testing. I will be in Salem Wednesday nights to Thursday to help with youth group (yeah yeah yeah, I know, likely story, right?) and help MJo out in the office, and one weekend a month cuz I just don’t think I can handle being away from some of you crazy people (Sunday school ladies you are at the top of this list) for very long. The move is neither temporary nor permanent, it is what I am doing at this juncture and the rest is left up to Him.
Any questions? You know where to reach me – Salem or Portland I am ALWAYS on FB at some point.
YAY FOR ME! I’m finally back on track after SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO long.
God is GOOOOOOOOD!
Steph, that is AWESOME!!! I will pray for a wonderful transition and that God would bless your socks off even more. Social work definitely seems like a perfect fit for you!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you have already googled to death the GRE but here is a sight that I found helpful. http://www.greguide.com/gre-study-material.html
<3 sister!
I am happy and sad. I will miss you but hope we can still get together from time to time. I can come to you or you can see me on one of your many trips here! Please dont lose touch with me!
ReplyDeleteMelissa
Just from the few posts that I've read, and the little bit from FB.....everytime I hear the chorus to "Shine" by the Newsboys I'm reminded of you. :-) I'll be praying for ya!
ReplyDeleteWow! There just AREN'T any accidents! PTL!
ReplyDeleteIf he brings you to it, he will bring you through it, just keep your faith. I will keep praying for you and I am so happy you've found your way with our lord by your side!
ReplyDelete