Friday, May 7, 2010

Life after Des Moines

BY TINA WEINERT

After this internship, I had planned on moving to the Omaha/Council Bluffs area. Now that the time has come, I have mixed feelings. It is exciting to be starting a new chapter in my life, and I found a job. I'll be working in Underwriting at FirstComp, a company downtown Omaha, and I start May 17.

On the other hand, it's odd to think that I won't be moving back in with my parents. I think they expected me to come home after graduation, and southwest Iowa is pretty much the opposite of the Chicago suburbs. It's been tough telling high school friends that I won't be home this summer, too.

My boyfriend bought a house in Council Bluffs, so for now that is what I'm focused on. It was a foreclosure, and it's a three bedroom, one and a half bathroom place in a quiet neighborhood with a good view. But it needs a LOT of work- every single wall is being sanded, mudded, and then will be primed and painted. We ripped out the carpet (GROSS) and are getting the original hardwood finished, and had someone measure the bedrooms for carpet. And we're gutting the whole kitchen and starting over. It's a long process, but I think it will be worth it.

Right now, I'm pretty much trying to get through things day by day (sometimes hour by hour) because I get stressed when I think about all the things that need to get done before I can move into the house, and I definitely get freaked out by the prospect of graduating and starting a real-world job. When I combine that with being 8 hours away from my parents and best friends, it gets to be very overwhelming. But when I slow down and focus on how lucky I am to have support and love from family and friends and think about how fortunate I am to have found a career in this economy, my outlook is nothing but positive

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