It was quite surreal to return to my beloved campus and sit through a day of interviews with friends. By the end of the day, I found myself excited about returning to that special place, to working with great people, and to stepping out of my comfort zone and into an area of my field that I would have never pursued under different circumstances. It didn't hurt that Jonathan would be able to take his undergraduate prerequisite courses free of charge, and that we could live on campus and even have a partial meal plan. For this season of life, it was obvious that the job was a perfect fit.
The job was mine, but it didn't start until the first of August. My graduation was in mid-May, and Jonathan really couldn't afford to waste any time in knocking out some of those prerequisites. Since he had been working, he had Texas residency; it would be ideal for him to stay in the state to take a few classes over the summer so that he didn't have to pay out-of-state tuition in Oklahoma. Before we could even ask or evaluate our options, dear friends in the DFW area offered for us to live with them over the summer in order for Jonathan to complete a few courses. Our plan was set.
After a successful case study thesis defense, I graduated with my Master's degree, we packed up our little apartment, and we said goodbye to our sweet community of Waco friends. Thus began the crazy summer of transition. We put most of our belongings into an empty married housing apartment on the OBU campus for storage, and then moved with just a few of our things into the upstairs bedroom at the home of our incredibly generous friends, Ryan and Holly Linders. Jonathan began Chemistry I the next week, and so his journey of returning to school began.
As I spent each day relishing having no work or school obligations, Jonathan left the house at 6 a.m. each day to beat the DFW traffic. He returned at 6:30 each night and then studied until midnight. His first exam came, and when scores were posted he had received a disappointing 68%. It was a blow that shook our confidence. That one little number represented all of the challenges in store, and it led Jonathan to seriously consider his judgement and conviction. I maintained my positive and supportive demeanor, but deep inside I was worried. What if this wasn't it? What if he changed his mind again? What if I am sacrificing my career options and his don't work out? Carrie Underwood had just released her cover single of "I'll Stand By You," and I distinctly remember driving alone and belting out "Let me come along, 'cause even if you're wrong I'll stand by you" through tears. Even if he was wrong, even if he failed, I committed to see him through with as much encouragement as I could muster. (To this day I can't hear this song without getting choked up.)
Thankfully, that first test proved to be the result of kicking off the dust from many years without science courses. Jonathan found his groove, and he finished that first Chemistry course with an A. Things were looking up! Chem II came and went, and he once again finished with flying colors for a guy who hadn't had a science course since Nat Sci at OBU. He made a 89.7 (don't you just love that professor who won't round up your grade?).
At the end of July, I drove up to Oklahoma to move our belongings out of storage in married housing and into our new apartment in Kerr Dormitory. Jonathan stayed behind to finish up his courses. Those few weeks apart were strange. There I was, back in a place so familiar and yet so different, now seen through the lens of an administrator rather than of a student. I was about to begin a job I swore I would never do, while my husband was miles away, living with friends and spending his days with high school students in introductory Chemistry classes. Being alone in that huge, old empty residence hall amplified all of the questions and doubts I had about what we were getting ourselves into.
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