The Story of Us - Part 19

Life after graduation started with a bang with a family reunion and then almost instantly off on my family's trip down to LA and Disneyland. Then it was off to Utah for my grandpa's 85th birthday celebration (which Josh was able to join), back up to Billings to get my stuff, and then heading back to Rexburg to work as an EFY counselor for two weeks. It was all so much fun and the best way to start off being done with school forever!




I didn't get to see Josh very much during all of this because I was so busy, and one weekend, he went out of town for his best friend's wedding in Washington. But we were constantly texting, calling, or chatting on Facebook to make up for it. The hardest part about working EFY was that I was staying at an apartment complex right next door to where Josh lived, but I couldn't go see him! Absolute torture! My EFY girls would beg me to bring Josh over, but I instead bribed them with the story about how we met if they got in bed on time.

The Sunday in between my EFY sessions, as soon as Josh got back from Washington, he took me out on a quick date to our favorite place: Porter Park. It was getting late, but Josh had a special surprise for me. He got out his phone, put on a cute song, and we danced. We didn't talk, but just enjoyed being in each others arms, dancing in the beautiful summer night air with thousands of stars shining above us.

At the end of August, for our 3 monthiversary of dating, I decided it was my turn to surprise him with something cute, and I sent Josh on a little scavenger hunt around Rexburg. I told him to come over to my apartment, where he found a note on the door with a clue sending him off to the building on campus where we had church (where we first met). There, he found another clue sending him off to another place that was significant for us. And another and another. Each clue had a reason why I loved him. After a slight hiccup when his car wouldn't start, he blazed through the hunt surprisingly fast, and found me sitting at Porter Park with a couple of Cocoa Bean cupcakes.
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Once the summer fun was over, I buckled down into getting myself a job and an apartment. After a couple of weeks, I found a nice, cheap furnished apartment in Rexburg and tried to settle myself into some sort of routine. It was hard. I'm the kind of person that likes to have a plan, and so not having any sort of structure to my days quickly lost it's appeal. My life quickly revolved around Josh's work schedule, and then when September came around, his school schedule as well. When I wasn't with Josh, I hung out with Allison, Eliza, and their roommates. And when they were busy, I hung out at home, which was honestly pretty boring because my roommates were almost always gone, and there was no internet.

And my job hunt wasn't going much better either. After several weeks of searching, I got hired with a home health agency in Idaho Falls near the beginning of September. I started going through orientation, but it was very unstructured and after a few weeks, without any real good reason, I was fired. I was devastated. Even though the job hadn't felt like a good fit for me, I needed the money. The money I had earned from EFY was quickly running out, and I had rent to pay and I needed food to eat. And most importantly, I really wanted to stay in Rexburg with Josh!

Luckily, that same week was General Conference, and Josh and I had the chance to go down to Salt Lake City and attend a session with several people in my family. During the Conference, I received a feeling of peace, and I knew that I would be able to find a job.


I started widening (and deepening) my search. I started going to all sorts of random doctors' offices with my resume, just in case they were hiring. I started looking for jobs farther away from Rexburg, down to Pocatello and even into Utah. Josh (the wonderful guy that he is) assured me that he would follow me wherever, and that he would even transfer schools if necessary. I even started applying for non-nursing jobs because frankly, I needed money, but nothing seemed to be working out.

Even though the job hunt wasn't going anywhere, things for Josh and I were only getting better and better. Thanks to my wide open schedule, we had plenty of time to spend together. Some days we could go out on a date, and other days, it was just us chilling in his apartment lounge while he worked on homework.


During all the craziness fall was bringing, we were still falling more in love with each other. 

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