Shaun and I met in January 2008. I was working as a production supervisor in my plant. There he was, the new supervisor trainee assigned to my department, during my shift. He spent a few days working with me, then moved on to the next department where he continued to learn about the company and the process. Eventually he was placed into his department where we had no contact.
A group of fresh college-graduate supervisors eventually formed and we had what you would call “The Gang”. We all had moved to the valley for the job, so we had that in common. We would meet up to hang out at restaurants, bars, or at people’s homes. Shaun moved into his day-job Engineer position after a few months and in January 2009 I followed into my day-job Food Science position. “The New Gang” was our lunch group. Every day at 11:30am we would meet for lunch – and still to this day.
In 2010 things in my life changed drastically. Shaun was there for me as a friend, and things eventually moved past friendship between us. Tension was high during the first half of the year, as Shaun was planning a lengthy European adventure and I was still a raging ball of emotion. The opportunity to both move into a mutual work friend’s new house gave us even more reason to grow closer throughout the rest of the year.
It’s nearly a year later and many things have changed. Shaun’s dream of a global backpacking trip has been brought to a halt – to revisit in a few years. My troubles are slowly growing smaller and my life is being pieced back together. We are in a strong and positive relationship, stemming from our initial friendship. We enjoy our centralized location and our once-despised-community. And we are very excited to make the step to move together to our own place. The situation is perfect and we are both extremely happy about the future, and more directly, our new house.
Since moving away from home in 2003, I’ve lived in 11 different places with various roommates: dorms, condos, apartments, trailers, in-law units, shacks, and even a few nice places – but I could not call any of them “my home” proudly.
This is our home!
(I can’t even imagine how I’ll feel once I own a home…)
mt. friendship 