New Year, New Life???

Hi my dear, dear friends and family.

My life has taken a major turn. I am right now, at this very minute, sitting in a dorm room, way across the continent in a tiny little town in West Virginia called Glenville. Let me tell you. This is something that I had always hoped would happen, but was not quite sure it ever would.

My story started way back in 1995. I was newly married (although my parents didn't know that particular point until two years later) and setting off on a huge adventure. Frank and I decided that we wanted to go and play basketball somewhere in the USA. It didn't really matter to us where, just that there were spots for both of us on the respective teams. It came down to two colleges. The first one was a NCAA Div II school in, I think, Missouri. The other was Glenville State College in West Virginia. Frank and I went to the local library in Prince George, and tried to find some information on both these locations. We wanted to see some pictures and get a feel for the towns the colleges were in. Well, this was before the internet was commonly used and so we had to try and find information the old fashioned way, through encyclopedias and books. Well, there were no books in the library on these regions. And the encyclopedias didn't have pictures. So we were guessing. Frank finally told me that West Virginia was in the Appalachian Mountain range and Missouri was flat farm land. He said, "remember 'Who's the Boss' with Tony Danza? Remember in the opening credits how he drives his van through the town? Well, that's in the Appalachian Mountains. Glenville will be like that." So, on that vision, we decided on Glenville, West Virginia.

We sold all our furniture and took 2 suitcases each and boarded a plane that flew us across the country. I should have known something wasn't right when the plane almost crashed trying to land on what I can only describe as a mountain top in Charleston, West Virginia. The Men's coach picked us up, he wasn't a very talkative man and we proceeded to drive along the freeway towards Glenville in pretty much silence. Then we turned off the freeway and to my horror we took this very twisted 2 lane county road. We drove past the most astonishing sites. There were these tiny, dirty, run-down, shacks that could only be reached by walking across suspended bridges! Frank and I stared in disbelief. This wasn't "Who's the Boss". This wasn't were Tony Danza dispensed funny yet wise wisdom to Sam in a posh house. This was "Deliverance"!!! I got car sick on that ride. I think it was because of the twisty road, but it could have been this tight clenching of my stomach, looking at my surroundings.

When we reached Glenville, I almost started to cry. The town was tiny, yet the boasted "the only stop light in 3 counties" or something to that effect. And it did have a stoplight. One.

Then the coach told us some more distressing news. He said that he wasn't able to find us a place to stay yet and that the dorms did not allow co-ed habitation. Whaaaaa????!!!! He said that he was able to let us stay in the Head Residence Hall Managers suite as the position had recently been vacated and the suite was empty. But only for a few days. There were no beds.

Frank and I unpacked as best we could and took a walk around town and the campus. All the way around. It took only 45 minutes. We found out that the population of the town, without the students in the dorms, was 900 people. 900 people!!!! 900. That's not even considered a town, is it? Maybe a hamlet? A "don't blink or you'll miss it" place to be sure. But it was where we were going to be going to school and playing basketball.

We did fine. We eventually found a place to stay. Frank and I played basketball. We both quit after the first year because we didn't like our teammates or the coaches all that much. We stayed through the summer, and into the next fall. I excelled at my classes. Frank did well but ruffled some feathers along the way. And then, Thanksgiving Break 1996. I got sick. Really sick. Like, almost didn't make it, sick. My appendix ruptured and I ended up in the hospital for 6 weeks and had 2 major surgeries. They opened me right up, twice. I have huge scars all over from the cutting and the IV lines. I didn't die. But the next semester had started and I was in no condition to continue. We decided to come back to Canada. I made arrangements with Glenville State for me to take my final 5 classes back in Canada and transfer them back and they would let me graduate. They were going to let me do this because I had a 4.0 GPA and 3 of the 5 classes I had to take were only electives. So we came back to Canada, I recovered. I went back to school and took those 5 classes and sent them to Glenville. I thought I was done. I was wrong. Dead wrong. Glenville rejected 2 of my classes. One of them was an elective! I couldn't graduate.

I didn't know what to do. I was furious, I was in disbelief. I was supposed to graduate Summa Caum Laude with a spectacular GPA with a BSc with a DUO major in both Chemistry and Biology. Instead, I was 6 credit hours short. We couldn't afford to go back to Glenville. I had also just had my first child, Aislinn. I looked into graduating back in Canada but was told that I would have to finish my final 2 years at the institution to be eligible to graduate. That would mean taking 3rd and 4th year sciences and all their labs all over again. I was stuck. I couldn't do anything.

Now, 11 years later, I am back in Glenville to finish what I started. I need that piece of paper! I need to close this chapter in my life. I need to do this. Frank and my kids have sacrificed so much for me to be able to do this. I am living away from them for 5 months to complete this degree. I am so grateful and sad at the same time. I am going to miss them so much.

My goal is to leave Glenville with no new scars and with my degree. The exact opposite of the first time I had to leave.

I haven't taken any pictures yet. But I plan to. I want everyone to see where I am at. I will get that one stoplight for you.

Until next time.

Love Tanya