My Friend K.

To satisfy her wanton need for attention (HAHAHAH, KIDDING K...) I am remiss in not noting the input she had in my decision making process for the new job opportunity. We spent a few hours discussing this, and her feedback was very valuable, and I would be terribly excited to move to YK to spend more time with her.

I haven't written about our shared background before, so perhaps I'll indulge us both and drop a few lines here. I first met K. in Cape Breton but our story starts even before this. While I was in university in Waterloo, she too was pursuing higher learning at the high school down the street, aka Sir Wilfred Laurier University. We joke about that all the time, and in fact, Laurier is well renowned and I even attended a couple of courses there myself. In any event, she was in Waterloo at the same time, we likely passed one another on campus and out and about the city, not knowing one another. Then our paths crossed in small town Cape Breton. I was to step into her job, and she was moving on to another program with the same employer. We hung out a fair bit over our time at the same agency, melding with a group of friends who we frequently socialized with - our "crew".

Then K. and I both became frustrated with our student loan debt. We were about ready to go postal on some of those call centres that plagued our phonelines, seeking payments. We both applied for jobs up north where the pay is much higher, and discovered we applied to some of the same positions. Both of us were granted interviews, and before I knew it, K. was off on her adventure up north, bound for Inuvik. Meanwhile, I was doing my interview from Belize where I was backpacking with my daughter, and found during our central american exploits, I was not yet ready to move north, wishing to spend just one more year close to my daughter.

When K. headed north, I moved into her house. So then I had her former job and her former house. Life was ticking along, but those student loans were hell. I had finally settled my daughter in at university, her own apt with the b/f and before long, a year had passed and I was then looking to make a move. By November, I found myself in the Yukon, by which time K. had moved on to an opportunity in Yellowknife. My year in the Yukon passed faster than I dreamed it would and I was on to my current opportunity, which I was prodded into by my good friend, K. I know, I'm a grown woman, can make my own decisions, but she was key in my decision to come here. And now she's done it again...

Not that I wasn't already considering a change, but the prodding to move to YK has been there for some time, and swiftly rebuffed by me, but as soon as she smelled indecision on me when this YK job posting came up, the prod was out once again.

So there you have it, K. and I have criscrossed the country together for years, and nothing has changed...thanks K. for your hours of encouragement, listening to me whine and complain, debrief, and cry. You are a good friend.