Good News/Bad News

I was happy to have the job, but my happiness was immediately tempered with a feeling of dread. Not that I dreaded moving.

I dreaded having to tell my family and friends that I was leaving and no one was going to take it well.

As soon as I left work, I called Marci. I wanted her to be the first to hear the news. For over six years, she had stuck with me through everything–all the setbacks, all the doubts, all the missed chances. She stuck with me no matter how many times I couldn’t come through. Every time we had to part at the airport, she had the same refrain: “Not too much longer.”

Well, now it was truly not too much longer.

“I have some news.”

“OK.”

“I got the job.”

It took a second for my words to register.

“YAY”

For several moments, she said several things similar to that.–and I simply listened in silence, letting the smile get wider and wider on my face.

Eventually, I filled her in on the particulars, we ended the conversation and I went home. When I got there, the diploma I had been waiting so long for was waiting for me. I opened it and spent a few moments alone with it before I took it to my parents to see.

Jeff said he was proud of me. I told him he could be even prouder, because I got the job. He pumped his fist and celebrated.

My mom dropped her head and fought back tears.

She quickly sucked it up and said something that I would hear many more times over the coming weeks.

“I knew this was coming.”