Goodbye Columbia!!!

Three years and almost three months ago I left Denver and embarked on a great adventure.

I quit my well paying job and left the wonderful weather of Colorado to become a 30 year old nursing student at the University of Missouri. I traded my fancy city apartment for a federally guaranteed student loan and my easy-going 9 to 5 state job with thousands of holidays for a night shift of bed baths and wiping bums in the SICU for $8.75 an hour. And did I mention the Missouri humidity and my intolerance to heat?

By the end of that first summer as my savings was dwindling to nothing and three semesters of study still loomed ahead, I SERIOUSLY questioned my sanity.

But then Columbia grew on me ... maybe it was the dichotomy of living in a town where there are bleeding heart liberals trying to end the war, save the animals and end capital punishment on the same street as a person born and raised in Boonville – thinking that moving to Columbia is the “big city” - and angered by all those people around here who don’t speak English. When I finished school, it didn’t seem like the end of the world to hang out for a while – so I did.

In my time here, there are some things I’ve truly come to love and other things that I am more than ready to leave behind. In that spirit, I thought I’d make a list.

Things I Won’t Miss About Columbia
1. The need for a Super Walmart on every corner
2. Blonde, college aged girls haunting downtown in ridiculous pieces of fabrics some call a shirt
3. The general lack of shoulders on the road.
4. Spectacular car accidents on I-70
5. The lack of unmarried men over the age of 18
6. Meth moms and/or people without teeth (either due to or completely unrelated to meth)

Things I Will Miss About Columbia
1. Hyvee – I LOVE that store and almost found myself crying as I wandered through a pathetic Virginia Beach Kroger supermarket
2. The Mizzou Rec center – again almost cried as I toured a local YMCA here
3. The MKT and KATY trails
4. The ability to get anywhere in town in 15 minutes or less
5. Low rent
6. The University atmosphere

Though not mentioned on my list, I will definitely miss all of my fabulous friends and NICU co-workers!! I’ve made it a habit in my life of moving on every 3 years of so, therefore I am used to leaving people behind. I always focus on the adventure ahead of me and try not to dwell on the sad part so don’t take it personally if I haven’t shed tears or sobbed a time or two. It probably won’t hit me until I’m at work one night and see a particularly FLK (funny looking kid) and then I suddently realize that I can’t make a joke about it with my normal partners in crime. Or when I have a really inappropriate thought and I can’t just say it to my pod partner because they’ll think I’m really strange (whereas you’all have long since figured that out so I don’t even try to hide it).

No, I’ll really miss you and I’ll place those fun times and memories in the back of my head and pull them out when I’m needing a laugh ☺