The first year after college, I had a teaching job. I lived
with my parents that year, so that I could save up and move out on my own. I
bought my first car, a brand new green Saturn SL1. At some point during that
year, my dad suggested I go to some of the Young Single Adult (YSA) activities.
I was really, really not into it. There was no YSA ward, and I just felt so
weird about the whole idea of going to these activities with a bunch of people
I had never really met. I think I went to one or two activities that year, but
it really didn’t catch on. I wasn’t sold.
That summer is when I moved over to Oak Park apartments, and
I was in a different ward. I don’t know exactly why I ended up going to more
YSA activities. It could be that I was called as the YSA rep for the ward, but
I can’t remember if that calling came later. At any rate, I started going. We had
institute on Tuesday nights, and there were dances and other things. I started
making friends, and I was hooked. All the sudden I had a major life outside of
work. Work was something I did in between FRIENDS.
I was heavily involved in the YSA program for the next two
years, and it was easily one of the most fun times of my entire life. Things
were different for me in YSA than they had ever been. I was never, ever ever,
the popular, well liked person in high school or college that I found myself
being in YSA. I’m sure some of it had to do with the fact that I had my own
place, and I had a car, and I had money, so I could go where I wanted and do
what I wanted. I didn’t have to depend on anyone else to get me anywhere, and I
was in complete control of every hour of my day. I had a place I felt
comfortable inviting people to—you just can’t really do that when you live with
your family and you have a bunch of younger siblings and some parents trying to
live their lives. Young Single Adults are loud and crazy, and too much of that
in a family home can get invasive. A lot of my friends lived at home, so they
loved coming over to my place to play and hang out and be crazy. And believe
me, we were crazy! At my place or out on the town, life was great.
Part of me wishes I had been more conscientious about how I
spent my money. I could have saved a ton that I could have used to buy a house
or something important like that. But in the end, although there was no money
to show for it, I think I really needed that time in my life to just be free. I
could do whatever I wanted without the heavy weight of worrying about money. I
had lived a life of pinching pennies, never being able to afford anything. Lack
of money had a major impact on how I grew up. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but
being able to experience a time when I did not have to worry about it was healthy
for me, and later I was able to settle down into married life and be more
careful with money.
