The Decade in Review - Part 1

I just got done reading this article on Boundless and it made me stop and really think about how the last decade was for me. Wow. SO MUCH has changed in my life and yet some things have stayed exactly the same...


In the year 2000, I was 18/19 years old, fresh out of High School, and not as close to the Lord as I should have been. I had zero ambition and no idea of what I would do with myself. I wasn't in school yet, but I was working under the table doing Medical Transcription and then eventually got a job at Mervyn's in the Burbank Mall. My closest friend, Michelle, was pregnant senior year and gave birth to my first psuedo-godchild Destiny during this time. Despite having practiced the fine art of Bulimia on and off through High School and up until this point, I put on about 20 or so of those post-High School pounds that most girls put on and I had still never been kissed. I was a sad case I have to say. Sad sad case.

I eventually quit Mervyn's and started baby steps into community college. I start the Atkins diet and lose about 40 or 50 lbs., which in and of itself forever changes my life because it is the one thing that makes me stop shoving my finger down my throat. My sisters and I started working at Six Flags Magic Mountain where we are known as "the KKK" (Kristina, Kim, and Katie--thanks, Mom!). When I was almost 20, I finally had my first kiss from some jerk who I saw maybe one time after that, but I really didn't care... I had FINALLY been kissed! I went buck wild--well as buck wild as a virgin can get (LOL)--and started kissing every boy I could find. This was also the time that Sandy, my now "adopted" sister came to live with us. I started catching up on the so-called "fun times" you are supposed to have in High School and College and started going to parties, cruising with the girls, meeting boys.

I quit Six Flags and then come back after awhile, but this time I'm working at Hurricane Harbor under my old High School Class President, Karina. Through our adventures and right about the time I was to turn 21, I meet Ramon who will become one of my best friends. Sandy, my sister Kim, and I proceed to start hanging out with a group of guys we deep down knew were bad news. Drama, heartache, and discord ensue. Kim eventually moves out to her own apartment at 18 years old. She also meets her future husband Mike, who is 12 years her senior and who big sister Kristina DOES NOT LIKE AT ALL. Things were stressful at this time.

Ramon and I get very close, and we are hanging out EVERY day. I fall madly in love; he not so much. I pretty much waste a year or so of my life trying to get this guy to love me. I go to therapy for the first time in my life. It helps a little, but not enough--the depression is just too strong. I now know it was because I wasn't living my life for the Lord, so no amount of therapy was really going to do anything, but it was nice to talk to someone at least.

By this time I have gone on from Hurrican Harbor to the Entertainment Department. I begin to make a whole new set of friends, some who will end up becoming what are now some of my closest friends Today...