In the beginning

I had always wanted to go to college and get a degree so when I seen an ad for one I jumped on it. I put out of my mind that I was almost 30 and starting college. I wanted to do it. I called and talked to my mom about babysitting my kids if I went.  From there called made my appointment to sign up. "This is going to change my life and I'm going to make good money finally" I thought to myself. Little did I know that just signing up for school would change my life more than I expected.

I had always enjoyed the breaks in between my classes. I had made many good friends. School was my small break away from home. Things weren't the best there. My husband and I decided to call it quits after almost 13 years of marriage. It was a sad time but it had to be done. It was not fixable. We both had tried and there was nothing left to do but divorce.

There was one friend who I would sometimes car pool with named Jason. He was a tall guy and very smart when it came to computers. One day during the summer, about early August I believe, we were outside during a break and he was on the phone with a friend of his named Jerid.

Jason had been waiting for our dean to come to his office. Jason was on the phone talking and once he had seen him he handed me the phone and said "Here talk to Jerid for a minute while I talk to the dean." He handed me the phone and ran inside. I put the phone up to my ear and mustered quiet a hello. The voice on the other end sounded just as awkward as my hello. We managed to exchange pleasantries through the awkward situation we were placed in. Nonetheless was a nice conversation, brief but still nice.

Jason had always talked about Jerid like he was his own brother and seemed very proud to know him. Friends that are that proud of you are very rare. Jerid and Jason were always together, or it seemed like it to me. Jason had always talked about Jerid having Cystic Fibrosis (CF). I had heard of CF just briefly through my first husbands’ family. From what I understood he had 2 cousins who died from it. I knew it was something horrible to have but never really thought I would know firsthand. Then I met Jerid, and I was not prepared for the new encounter that life had in store for me