Meeting my first astronaut

The very last weekend before I started college, an astronaut made an appearance at one of the malls in town.  The way I remember it, I was able to attend because it turned out I was not needed to work on Sunday.  I brought three of my brothers along.  Kawphy (almost 14), Sguth (12), and we had to bring our youngest brother (20 months).

We arrived at the mall in time.  I found where the appearance would be.  The adolescent brothers ran off, I could see them on the 2nd floor balcony while the astronaut talked.  I've heard many astronauts speak since then.  The main quote I remember was about getting into a rocket built by the lowest bidder.

They were still upstairs when I got in line with my baby brother to get autographed photos.  I'm sure it looked bad, 18-year-old girl with toddler in arms.  But we got two autographed pictures, my brother's was even personalized.

It was so short, there wasn't a lot of time to talk.  Besides having my fussy baby brother, I mumbled something about being a "space case," which probably didn't come across the way I meant it.  I met up with my other two brothers, we shopped a little, and then when nearly everyone had cleared out, the four of us went back downstairs where the astronaut was heading out.

It was... different.  I don't know what I expected.  I learned a lot.

Registering for college classes.

Purdue had a Day on Campus for incoming students to attend over the summer, before starting classes.  It seemed like most students had their parents with them, but my parents didn't come.  I wanted to bring my high school friend, but they said no to that too.  So I made the 3-hour drive each way by myself, first road trip.

First real jobs

The summer between graduating high school and beginning college was a very strange, transitional time.  I took a job with a temp agency, doing secretarial (2) work, mostly data entry.  Mom had ensured that all of us were decent typists, we kept Typing Tutor software on the computer and were encouraged to practice with it.  But there's nothing like spending a ~40-hour workweek typing to really hone that skill.