The Beginning

When I say the beginning I really mean the beginning of the rest of my life. My name is Amanda, I am eighteen years old, I just graduated High School and I have moved to Spokane to attend college. I never thought in a million years that moving out of my parent’s house and into my own place would be this hard.

I think that every teenager dreams of the day when they can get out from under their parents wing. I mean just imagine what you can do in your own apartment, you can stay up till whenever, you can eat anything at any time that you want. The t.v. is all yours 24/7. What more could someone ask for. But immediately after my parents left my apartment and started their six hour drive back to Camano Island I realized this wasn’t going to be the best time of my life. All of a sudden I was alone, I knew nobody. Not to mention the responsibilities. I needed to find a job and ASAP! I started regretting the decision to move so far away, wondering why I chose to move to Spokane and attend this school when all along I could have stayed closer home. In fact I could still be living at home… But here I was, and I had planned this for over two years. This is what I so desperately wanted, and this is where I am going to stay. But even though I had planned it for so long it never really hit me until my parents left that this is it. I will most likely never live at home again. In fact the house on Camano Island that my parents currently occupy isn’t my home anymore. The fact that when I come back to my apartment no one else will be here, no one will greet me when I get home, no one will cook for me, no one will be there when I most absolutely need them. I am truly living on my own.

That first week was the hardest week of my life. I was constantly feeling sick, I couldn’t hold down the little bit of food I was eating and I stayed up late crying and woke up the next morning ready for another round of tears. Even now looking back on it (a little over a month has passed) I still get sad and ‘misty’ thinking of all those feelings that I went through. I guess I never realized how much my mom and dad really meant to me. All the talks that mom gave me on the phone kept me going. Knowing that at some point there would be a light at the end of a tunnel, and it would be a happy light, one that I would WANT to walk to!

Sure it was hard but here is the best part! My apartment is AMAZING! It is everything I could ever imagine it being. For graduation my parents bought my furniture to deck out the place. And I picked out and an amazing red couch and love seat with black sofa pillows with colorful polka dots of course lol! The actuall apartment complex is beautiful still considered new and it is in great condition. There is a lovely pool so on all those 90 plus temperature days I can be outside lounging working on a golden bronze.

But the real point of this blog is not going to be all about my woes and self pity. Instead I plan to make this as humorous as possible. You see for three weeks I searched for a job. I applied everywhere I could think of. I spent countless hours in the malls filling out applications (not to mention a lot of money to pay for parking). I applied to numerous jobs online and followed through with phone calls. In total I had two interviews, and I applied to most likely over thirty places. I even applied to walmart… and never heard back from them. Talk about pathetic. About five minutes away from my apartment is a Petro truck stop. Desperate for a job I filled out an application and was basically hired on the spot! Now for those of you who don’t know me I should fill you in on my personality. I am from a somewhat small town, I worked at a fabric store for two years before moving to Spokane, and all though I dealt with some cranky women there I was nowhere prepared for this job. I believe that I have and outgoing personality, I also feel like I have excellent customer service. I still believe that I am somewhat innocent to the real world, and I quickly found out that I have defiantly a lot to learn. This truck stop isn’t just a little one on the freeway. No this place is huge! It has a subway, iron skillet, and a gas station plus a ‘mini mart’ but is way bigger then a normal mini mart.

I was told from the get go that the job is very hard to learn. There is so much to be paying attention to and so many things that you have to do at one time. They also warned me that the truckers can get very lonely out on the road, being gone from home for weeks on end, and they tend to be a little…horny. I chuckled at that and though yea sure. I was soon to find out what I was getting myself into. I am going on to my second week working at the truck stop and I have so many stories about things that go on there, some good and some bad. I plan on recording all my truck stop stories in this blog and occasionally things going on outside the dramatic world of Petro! This blog is intended for family and friends, as well as the public. So enjoy, and please be respectful when leaving comments! Love you all! Amanda