Now back to the story.
Off to New Jersey he goes and then the rest of the plan starts to take shape. He has moved into his apartment and summer has arrived. I am a little relieved because balancing my studies with traveling back and forth to Pittsburgh to see him or vice versa really does not fit well with a college syllabus. I can tell you for a fact that college is much easier having the internet at your fingers. I’ve done both. You will hear about that much later.
We take this particular summer to travel to Ocean City, Maryland for a vacation and on the way we stop at his new place in Morristown. We shop for a couch while there because it is sparsely furnished. I get the tour of this area of New Jersey and that’s when he starts suggesting I move there with him. I explain that school is kind of important to me. I need to stay back in Ohio. Nonsense. I don’t need school. Here we are again. Can we just date? Looking back now I realize we never were on the same page about anything, but this has suddenly become the path of which I learn my greatest relationship lessons. As summer continues so does he with his “soft sell” of 200 reasons why I should move to New Jersey. I start investigating my college options and I decide that “hey, I guess I am in love and should build a future with this guy.” I look at Rutgers University and check out the Paralegal program. I wanted to go into law and had studied different paths to get into law school. Rutgers fit the bill and was close by so I applied and got accepted. I never, not once touched the campus of Rutgers University because….plans changed….quickly!!
So how do I tell my parents what I am planning? Haha. There are many cute expressions to explain their reaction. For this moment I will quote “It went over like a fart in church.” I grew up in a pretty traditional Greek household and now their daughter is going to move to New Jersey, enroll in Rutgers University and LIVE WITH A MAN. No bueno. It was only a brief moment of disapproval because sometime between the last time I saw him on vacation and telling my parents, he got another promotion. He was moving to California.
H-O-L-Y C-R-A-P
Shit just got real. He sells for a living and he was about to close his biggest deal. Me.
“What do you mean you are moving to California? When?” I have already started back at school when this bomb went off. I do not need this kind of stress and trying to study. Ugh! He’s starting to panic that if he moves out West our relationship is done. Why didn’t anyone grab me by the shoulders and tell me NO?!
Lesson #3: Trust your gut
A Voice For Women 