Boiler Rooms and Fantasy Class - College Stories

The expectation at college is to go, learn about a career field you plan on spending your life in and then graduating with a degree saying you know what you are talking about when you go into that field. The real issue I had was I didn't fully know what field I want to go into. I knew I wanted to work with children. I wanted to work with children, foster children, children with special needs, any child really. Any age. (When I discussed fostering I was, and still am, set on fostering teenagers because they are the ones who need it the most and that hardly anyone want.) So when I started my college career I went into Mental Health specializing in Child Development. It seemed like a fair set.

I fell into this quickly. I loved my classes, I loved my instructors and I loved the college. It was though... my first time away from home on my own and I needed income. So I took a work-study position at the college doing filing, shredding, copying, stapling for the nursing department. To me shredding was the BEST days. There was a huge industrial size shredded in the back boiler room. I'd get four giant boxes of papers. I'd take them back there, sit in a nice comfortable chair, lean back and feed papers to the shredder with one hand, and flip pages of the book I was reading with the other. The best part? I got PAID to do that... best job perk ever.

One day, as I went back there to do my shredding, I heard someone using it. This made me sad as if I had to use the other shredder, a small little office size one, I wouldn't be able to read as I'd have to empty the thing every five minutes. I saw a girl about my age, back there with a box of papers and a sketch pad. She was also doing a work study and was shredding her own things for the day. She said I could join her and share the shredder. So I sat by her and begin to shred and read. When I looked up I noticed she was shredding and drawing.

We got to chatting and found we had a lot in common. We begin to schedule our shredding days to match each other so we could chat. I learned she was an artist and loved fantasy just as much as me. When next semester class sign up came, she told me to take the Fantasy Class that was being offered as an elective. I happily agreed.

We spent the following semester in class together and in the back shredding. During this time we began to pass a notebook back and forth and roleplayed. We began to tell stories about all of the news in the boiler room and how there was totally a man back there, The Boiler Man, who was secretly watching us. It was great.

The Boilerman (With Nevah and Anna) - Drawn By Reanna

Though we have grown apart some, and don't chat as often, we are still the best of friends. I will fondly remember those days. She has been a huge support in my writing and is the cover designer for my latest book, Knowing.

It's funny how common everyday things that you have to do to survive, like taking a work study job shredding, can turn into life changing moments.

It's the little things that you have to watch, things you might start off going, "Mm... I'll do this because I need to, not because I want to" may turn into, "I'm so glad I did that. It was the best choice in my life."

Those moments are sprinkled all in my stories. Moments where characters do what they have to, not because they want to... and those moments become the beginning steps to life changing events.