***
As I worked more at Papas, I began to get to know everyone better. Penelope held a girls Bible study on Tuesday nights that five or so of my coworkers went to. I started going to that and it was really awesome! I wasn't in a youth group at the time so the Bible study served as my youth group. We would hang out afterwards and I started getting to know everybody really well.
Despite getting along with everyone so well, I had one coworker that I felt hated me. Her name was Jocelyn. She was kind of cold to me, so it seemed, and I just felt like she didn't like me. I was actually kind of scared of her.
***
One Friday night, an old coworker Brandi was in town to visit. I didn't know her, but she seemed really nice. Everyone was going out to the movies that night to spend time with Brandi and they invited me along. My parents said I could go and I was pretty excited! This was actually my time going out with the crew after work. There were ten of us who went. I ended up sitting next to Jocelyn.
We went to this horrible Nicholas Cage movie called Next. It was so ridiculously cheesy and we were all laughing at things that weren't supposed to be funny. But really, Jocelyn and I were the ones laughing the most. I know it sounds cheesy, but from that night on we were really good friends.
We hung out together a lot. Going to the movies, to the mall, to the gym, the Donut House, anything really. Although she was two years older than me, were both starting school at Skagit Valley College in the Fall of 2007. We went to orientation together and then just hung out even more. She was the first best friend I had had in years. She was like my sister.
***
In the beginning of September 2007, my older sister moved to Leeds, England to go to school. At first, this wasn't too big of a deal. I got used to it really quick. I definitely enjoyed having a bigger bedroom! But deep inside of me, I was hurting really bad. Its really hard to go from having a sister to basically not. We couldn't talk on the phone because it was too expensive and we had a hard time video chating because the connection was always bad.
In the beginning of December 2007, my manager Heather invited me to go to a play in Seattle with her, her sisters and their husbands. Heather and I were definitely friends but we weren't very close. She was four years older than me, so we never really hung out outside of work. It kind of caught me off guard that she invited me to this play, but I was really excited. She paid for my ticket as a Christmas present and told me that she just felt like she needed to invite me.
We went out that evening and had an amazing time. From then on, we hung out a couple of times a week. We would close together at work and then just go grocery shopping together. We went to concerts together. We went shopping and she helped me pick out nice clothes for my office job.
Heather also is a very strong Christian and really helped me focus in on my relationship with Christ. She taught me how to view everything in God's plan. We prayed together a lot. She was the person that I went to whenever I had problems or something was bothering me.
She was the big sister I needed.
***
Around February of 2008, some major things happened with Jocelyn that caused us to drift apart a bit. Its not like we got into a big fight or something, she just was making some choices that I really did not agree with at all.
This was around the same time that Heather and I were getting closest in our friendship. As I lost Jocelyn, Heather became my new best friend.
Now that isn't to say that Jocelyn and I weren't close anymore. Jocelyn was and still is a very close friend of mine. We just weren't close in the same way. We couldn't talk about the things we used to. She couldn't give me advice how she used to. Things just weren't the same.
***
I grew up a lot over this time at Papa Murphys. Maybe it was because I was in college, but I really credit a lot of it to Papas. I learned responsibility. I learned teamwork. I learned how to work hard. I learned that work could be fun!
I also learned a lot about myself...
***
I'll stop there for tonight. I'll update again later this week. I actually am thinking that there are going to be two more posts for this series. I have a lot more to say. A lot of confessions. A lot of apologies. A lot of thank yous.
Not that any of my coworkers will read this...
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