Chapter 14 Timeline and Next Steps

So on with my life as a college freshman I went, with very little studying, less attending class and more hanging out with my friends and experiencing freedom for the first time in my life. Nobody was taking attendance, nobody cared if you passed or failed and nobody was calling your parents if you cut class. This was not a good combination. Luckily, Mike was 1,000 miles away in Colorado. But I missed him so much. He wasn't allowed to call me but once a week on Sundays. I lived for those phone calls. He would on occasion, sneak out of his dorm in the middle of the night and jog the mile and a half to the nearest pay phone on the Academy in which he would not get caught. These calls came in the middle of the night, with my Dad answering. He was not happy about the middle of the night phone calls. But I lived for those sleepy, slow confessions of love and reassurance. It's no wonder they seem like a dream. I wasn't fully awake for most of them. But I can remember just asking Mike to talk me to sleep and thinking I could listen to his voice forever. He'd hang up and jog back to his dorm room praying the whole way he wouldn't get caught as it would mean extra duty shifts, push ups and revocation of privileges. But I didn't know at the time how stealthy Mike really is. He never got caught. Not even close. So I had some decisions to make. I knew Mike would be coming home in the summer to go on a mission for our church. I knew the local community college was not going to cut it for my education. I also knew Mike would be growing in his faith and religion over the two years he served as a missionary and if I stayed in Elk Grove, I might not. I wanted him to come home from a mission to a me that knew I could do this religion fully. That it wouldn't be constantly him leading me or teaching me. I wanted a firm foundation of what we believed doctrinally so I could discuss it with Mike and so I felt like a real member of the Mormon church, not this impostor who knew next to nothing. Lots of people recommended I attend a college level scripture study course called Institute and get involved with the single, college aged kids from my church. But I just didn't feel good about it. I've always been a "go big or go home" kind of chick so I figured if I wanted to learn all I could about the life of a Mormon college student, I had better go where they were...Brigham Young University. There were 40,000 of them there. Surely, immersing myself in their culture, dogma, doctrine and customs would help me to know for sure if I was cut out to be a Mormon. So I began researching BYU. I had good enough grades to get in during the summer session and then start in earnest in the fall. Mike would be leaving in the summer so the timing was good. It wasn't super expensive when it comes to colleges and my Mom and Dad were actually really supportive of me going to a school away from home and getting the campus life experience. As usual, plans change and things go haywire right when we think we have them all figured out. Mike came home in February from the Air Force Academy to put in his mission papers. He would work and save some money for a couple of months then go out on his mission. Now, I went from a boyfriend at a safe distance away to a boyfriend down the street with entirely too much time on his hands. I was glad he was home but I needed forward motion. I needed to know we were both working just as hard for the same end. I needed to know I could depend on this guy. Mike needed a break before his mission and wanted to use this time to "rest". So yeah, we had a little problem