The Story of us: The Ring of Fire

Heart out on the line. 

Risking a lot for someone I’d been dating less than 9 months. 

Love is funny like that. Somehow not much else matters when you are lost in each others arms. But we had yet to talk about a lifetime. We were getting closer. People were talking. I had finally graduated high school. Wahoo! And there was that whole ring thing. Big misunderstanding, I do not know what came over me.

June came and went, July melted into August and it was time to go back to school. The youth center was an after school program now. While Cody ran it, several of us helped when we could. Cody had a pretty easy semester at USAO, taking in a lot of history classes. 

I on the other hand was ready for the brain-washing to begin. I knew my faith would be tested. Individuals in Contemporary Society here I came! 

I still didn’t have a clue what I wanted to study. I just wanted to get in and out and on with life. Life with Cody. 

The first of August my parents took my sister and I out to New Mexico on a vacation. With little more on the agenda than eating and family time,  My sister and I took off on foot or car every day exploring Red River. I had brought my borrowed guitar on the trip. I needed pictures for my upcoming cd I was dreaming about recording so Debbie took no less than 24 pictures of me and that guitar on every trail, rock and creek we could find. This was when film limited how many pictures we could take otherwise we’d have taken 100. While I had thought I’d heard God telling me I wasn’t made to be a soloist and that the spotlight wouldn’t be mine- my heart still tried to go a different route. 

I sat in choir the first week of college as an undecided student. Hum....

English Education

Vocal Performance

Music Education

That’s what I’d narrowed it down to. Music Ed. took 30 extra hours. 30. That’s an entire year longer than the other 2. 

Just like when I stepped into that Ryder truck headed to Oklahoma, leaving all I’d known behind and just like when I kept talking to a want-a -be preacher boy with a twangy accent - Someone was nudging me in the way he wanted me to go. The way he’d created me to go.    And through the advice of some good counselors I changed my schedule, added some classes and gave in to what I knew I was supposed to do- Music Education. 

Weeks before in our condo in Red River, NM I finally had the conversation with my parents I had been dreading all summer. 

Cody wasn’t going anywhere. He and I had talked about getting married. But I was about to turn 18, hardly old enough for that kind of commitment. I had 2 older brothers in their mid 20‘s who weren’t even married. What would dad say to this? Mom never forced her opinion on me, I really didn’t know where she stood and I knew she would give advice if I asked. Dad would be the one to ask, what would say, did he know? Would he want me to wait? I wasn’t sure waiting was option. I’d been raised listening to the music of Johnny Cash and I finally figured out what that “ring of fire” song was talking about- and we were about to fall.