This is the short story I wrote and entered into Beginnings. Beginnings is something that Kent State does for students enrolled in the ABLE/GED classes. They take all the short stories, essays, and poems people have wrote and decide which ones are good enough to publish. I was lucky enough to get mine published. On May 10th I get to go to the Ohio Writers Conference in Columbus for an award ceremony, as well as meet some authors. One day I hope to actually turn this into a full book. Once time is on my side again. Enjoy.......
By: Heather M. Evans-Smith
Shea's Dream
As Shea stepped onto
the train she started remembering what got her there. Five years
earlier she had decided it was time for her to make a change in her
life. She had decided to go back and get her GED. It had been five
years since she had been out of school and she was pretty nervous
about embarking on this new endeavor. Shea had to drop out of school
at 16 years old to help her mother take care of their family. Her
father had been diagnosed with cancer and was no longer able to work.
She had worked as a waitress full time to help her mother put food on
the table and pay bills.
Shea's family was already
barely getting by before her dad had got sick. She grew up in a small
town in Alabama. Her mother worked at a local florist and her dad was
a handyman. There was not much in this town. People dreamed of making
it big and moving away. Shea had always wanted to be in marketing.
While she was still in high school she was always involved in
different ways to get her classmates to raise money for dances to new
gym equipment.
When Shea found out about
her dads colon cancer, he was already stage four. Her mother tried to
take care of her dad, work, and still keep up with the bills. One
night Shea heard her mother crying on the phone, begging the water
company not to turn off their water. Shea sat down at the kitchen
table with her mom and cried with her. She told her mom that she was
going to drop out of high school and get a job somewhere. Although
her mom didn't want this for her, she knew she had no choice. Her
mother and father made her promise that she would go back and get her
GED, then go to college.
Shea got a job as a
waitress at a local diner that all of her classmates hung out at
called, “Melts.” It was hard for Shea to over hear her friends
and fellow classmates conversations about what was going on at
school. Two months of being at “Melts”, Shea's father had passed
away. With all of the medical bills Shea's mother had; she continued
to work there to help her pay them off.
It was about five years
later everything was paid off. Both Shea and her mother both had new
jobs at a factory called, W.W.M., that made floor mats for offices.
They loved the pay and were even able to save some money in the three
years that they had been there so far. Shea liked going to work with
her mother and working along side her. Her mother always said to
Shea, “Just think if you would go back to school you could be
ordering one of these floor mats for your own office instead of
making them for other people.” Shea was 21 years old and thought it
was too late for her to start pursuing her dream. When Shea's boss
came to her to ask about different ways to get stores to buy from
W.W.M., she new her mother was right. So the very next day, Shea
enrolled in classes to prepare her for the GED test.
Passing the GED
ended up happening pretty fast for Shea. After only 3 months of
classes, she passed the first time taking it. Everyone was so excited
for Shea! Shea knew that nothing was going to stand in the way of her
dream. She continued working at W.W.M. and helped her boss come up
with new ideas to market the floor mats. That summer she spent as
much time as she could with her mother and friends before starting
school that August.
Those two years were
busy for Shea. She worked full time at W.W.M. and went to school full
time for marketing, but she earned her degree in marketing. She was
nervous about finding a job in the marketing world. One day during a
lunch break at work, her boss had called a mandatory meeting in the
middle of the plant. Shea was so nervous, she thought that they might
be getting ready to close their doors since most factories in that
area never kept their doors open for more than a year or two, but
W.W.M. had been there for five years.
Shea's boss, Jackson
started telling everyone about how well the company was doing. That
the company's headquarters were getting ready to open two new plants
in the U.S. He also wanted to congratulate Shea on earning her
marketing degree. Jackson said he was going to miss Shea and all of
her help, but she would be leaving in two weeks. Everyone's jaw
dropped! They could not believe what they were hearing! Shea, getting
fired? Jackson had a smile on his face and said, “Shea, I would
assume that after busting your butt for five years working here and
going to college full time for the past two years you would want to
move to New York and be on the board of marketing for W.W.M.?”
Everyone was clapping and cheering for Shea! Shea and her mother were
crying tears of joy. Jackson walked over to Shea and her mom and
said, “Seriously, the job is yours if you want it. The big guys are
expecting you in two weeks.” Shea jumped into his arms and said,
“Thank you SO much Jackson! Of course I will take the job!”
Shea decided after
all that she had been through she really could use a break and
decided to take the train to New York City. Shea arrived at her new
apartment right above a little ma and pa shop late on a Friday
evening. It left a lot to be desired. The only room that was separate
and had a door was the bathroom. She didn't care though. She knew
Monday morning her new life was waiting for her. She had spent the
weekend unpacking, site seeing, and getting ready for her first day
at work Monday.
At the age of 33,
just ten years after arriving to New York, Shea stood out on her
balcony sipping a glass of white wine. She had thought about those
past ten years and how far she had come. She had made Vice President
of the company in just a short 3 years. She had bought a penthouse
that you could see the Statue of Liberty from. She had a wonderful
husband that she met a few weeks after moving to New York.
Shea knew that she
would probably still be either waiting tables or making floor mats if
she had not got her GED and went on to college. She had thought for
years that this GED was just a silly piece of paper. She never knew
how far it would actually get her in life. The life she was living
was a life that she had dreamed of. Even though Shea lives very well,
she never forgets where she came from.
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