Chapter 17: My Career Begins

Most people think that dates around my mom bother me. Her birthday, my parent's anniversary, Christmas, Mother's Day. Ok Mother's Day does bother me a lot...but I get bitter and sad that my mom isn't here and everyone else has a mom to celebrate with. But those other dates don't really bother me. I can get by them like they are just another day. But there is one time of year that I really really miss my mom. I cry each and every day of this week and to some it may seem silly. But to me it's very upsetting.

You see my mom died before my first day of teaching. She died in July and my first day of teaching was in August. This is very hard for me. I really wanted to be able to tell her all about my first day and tell her how my kids were and even tell her what I wore. But no, I couldn't do that. Telling my sister wasn't the same...there wasn't that excitement in her voice. Not the excitement like mom. Mom would have said "that's great babe". "I'm so proud of you." That's what mom would have said...but mom couldn't say that because she wasn't here.

Steve and I's friendship continued to strain. After him not being there for me with my mom's death, I really found less time that I needed to spend with him. I didn't care to share my first year of teaching with him and I didn't care to get help or ideas from him. We began hanging out even less in the months to come until it came to the point where months would pass before we spoke or spent time together.

Fortunately for me, I had a class of angels for a first year teacher and a "mama bear" that was right next door. While she's not an important part of our love story, she is an important part of planning our wedding and my teaching career. Shari is the woman that teaches next door to me. She is an older woman and a wonderful teacher. Our first year of teaching, there were about 7 new teachers. We had to take a class after school on Tuesdays because we were new and this class was held in Shari's room. She stayed for all the classes even though she didn't have to. All the first year teachers came to her when they needed anything because she had that motherly persona about her. Thus her name "Mama Bear". She truly is a mama bear. She helped me through that first year of teaching and she has been wonderful while I have been planning my wedding. She got teary eyed one day and told me that she would be there to help in any way she could and she would do all those mom like things with me if I wanted her to. She is wonderful and I would be lost without her.

Dave and I continued to hide everything from our friends. We talked almost every day and I went to the shop to see him every single day after school. I would stay there until 5 and leave when he did. It was around this time that everyone grew a little suspicious of all the time that Dave and I were spending together.