Summer, 2009

This year, I had probably the most interesting and adventurous summer of my life. I’ve had my eyes opened in a way that I hadn’t before and since, have seen things that I didn’t ever think I would see. When I first moved in with Thayn (my current landlord/roommate/cousin) Dan moved in as well. For that first year, Dan didn’t have a job and I was jealous of all the things he could do while not working. Now I find myself in the same position. But to explain how that all works, I have to go back before the summer.

In April, working for Teleperformance, I had been moved to a supervisor position and it was a huge stretch for me. Learning to file reports, coach people on their work, and trying to be a good leader while being able to create good relationships with those I was put in charge of. I learned quickly that I wasn’t good at it and around the middle of the month, I removed as a supervisor. I spent a few weeks as a data analysis agent when I found out that my job was being outsourced and I would most likely not have a job by June first. Well, May rolled around and I was let go.
This wasn’t a big deal because I had been asked to be a chaperone for a summer camp and the money I earned would be enough to carry me over the summer. Being unemployed, I decided to go on a cruise with a big group of people off the coast of California. You can read all about it in my previous post.

I had also started dating a girl from my ward. It was fun and we really liked each other. We spent a lot of time together and by the time that the chaperoning started, we had talked and decided we wanted to get married, so I asked her to marry me. I then spent a lot of time working with the summer camp, but also with my fiancé. With that going on, I was also asked to coordinate the lights, sound, and video/audio recording of the final concert of the summer camp. Needless to say, I kept busy working 16+ hours a day. When that finished, I spend a few weeks living down in Provo (I had moved into an apartment with the students of the program so I could be the chaperone). While living in Provo and after a discussion where I regret my actions and some of the things I said, I had a discussion with my then fiancé deciding that things weren’t right and we called everything off. It was rough but I think things turned out best for both of us.

I had made a couple trips to Washington and met some wonderful people and visited my brother and his wife and had a blast.

So fitting in 2 trips to Washington, a cruise, an engagement/unengagement, and an extremely busy and stressful chaperoning experience, it turned out to be quite the adventure.