College

It had been a year and a half since Ryan was born and I was merely existing.  I was doing much better with my therapy and was up and walking and driving and doing pretty well, but I was still very much alone.  Chris was in Germany, and I went and visited him for a week there and had an amazing time.  I would love to go back and see so much more.  We went to Berlin and I must have taken about a million pictures, but I couldn't believe that I was actually walking the same ground as my ancestors.  Very cool.  I have lived and visited all over the United States, but Germany was so foreign.  Well duh.  The people were very kind and it was soooo clean.  I loved it so much.  I wouldn't want to live there, but would very much like to go back and visit again.

It was time to start doing something, I couldn't remain static forever.  I had to start living again.  I went online and filled out a FAFSA and applied to Palo Alto College.  Got some money, and registered for classes.  I was scared to death.  Would my pain and disability inhibit me so much that I couldn't do it?  I was just going to have to find out once I got there.

First off I needed some kind of job.  I needed money and the little bit of worker's comp. was not enough, so I started looking around campus.  I saw in the special services department that they needed something called Reader/Scribes.  The special services department helped disabled students with accessibility to the campus through a variety of services.  Sign language interpreters, note takers, extended test time, and readers and scribes for blind and low vision students.  Since I knew some of the people there, I figured what the heck and filled out the application.

I handed a woman named Renae my application and sat for about 5 minutes and she called me back for an interview.  We talked for awhile and ultimately she didn't offer me the job of Reader/Scribe, but as her assistant, she being the Reader/Scribe services coordinator.  Woo Hoo!!  More money!  The only problem was that I had to lie my butt off to get it.  I knew Microsoft Word and how to use that, but they used Word Perfect.  I figured that it wouldn't take me long to muddle my way through and get the hang of it.  I did, and it all worked out.