Life's Rollercoaster

As I shared last year, my 18 year old daughter has left home this year to go study at university.

Well it's June now, and what a ride we've been on...hoping for some calmer seas soon!

She started her course, seemed to be coping with the study load and adjusting to living in the city ok. I relaxed a little.

In March she went to a music festival. Not her first, I wasn't alarmed but was a little concerned as most parents would be. She met up with a friend there who she met a few months ago. He was a local lad from here but had moved away and joined the police force. Big sigh of relief from me, she was at a music festival with a policeman. Perfect.

Not so perfect it would seem. Without going into the gory details he got horribly drunk and attempted to take advantage of her, she came out of the incident bruised, battered and terribly ashamed and embarresed. He didn't succeed, she may be small but she has a fair amount of fight in her.... We were left feeling angry, upset, betrayed and I can't imagine how much worse those feelings were for her. She reported him, he was "disciplined" within the police force but they couldn't take it any further as Steph really didn't want to testify against him..she just wanted it to all go away.

She came home for a week. Recollected herself. Had some counselling, and back into her uni course. All seemed to settle down again for a while.

Then along came mid semester break and a phone call saying she doesn't want to study this course anymore. She was doing acupuncture and the mere sight of the acupuncture needle made her feel ill...perhaps not the best career choice! So she decided to quit and search for a job and work for a while, while she assessed what she wanted to do next.

Find a job. Sounded simple enough. NOT. She has administration, waitressing and bar tending experience, surely that would be enough? It would appear not.

Finally in the middle of May she seemed to catch a break. She was asked to come in for a days trial as a receptionist at an accounting firm. She did that, they said they liked her and to come back the next day. She took that to mean she had the job and worked happily the entire week, delighted to have finally found a job. On the Friday of that week, at 5pm she was told not to come in anymore. They didn't tell her she had done anything wrong, didn't offer any feedback and didn't pay her. She was distraught and devastated. Time for Mum to step in with a very stern (but polite) email. They replied saying that they decided to extend the trial from a day to a week (without telling her thats what they were doing) and as for the reason she wasn't successful they said they weren't prepared to discuss that. Excuse me? How is a young person supposed to improve if you don't tell them what they are doing wrong? My response wasn't quite so polite, but did result in them paying her for the work she did.

Along comes the end of May and a very bored and jobless Stephanie starts looking seriously into what she loves to do and what careers that could lead to. She found and signed up for a Diploma of Commercial Art (Graphic Design) and started that course on the 13th of June...all going well so far...

We had a long weekend in June so Steph came home and brought her new boyfriend. He seems nice enough...not a Christian...sigh. Anyway, they went to Port Lincoln for the a football carnival that is held there every year. And guess what. They were attacked by a group of individuals for no apparent reason, out of no where. Alex was knocked to the ground and concussed, Steph was punched in the face and ended up with a fat lip and a bruise that made her look like Hitler. Again the assault was reported but with no names or witnesses there wasn't much that could be done. A very cross and indignant Stephanie went back to Adelaide.

Yesterday she finally found a job at McDonalds. She is less than thrilled about working there but the need to work seems to have over ridden any misgivings she had about working for them (heard lots of bad stuff from friends about how hard the job is and how little you get paid).

Tomorrow at 2pm she has a job interview for what sounds like a fantastic opportunity for her. It's an art administration traineeship, which involves co-ordinating and promoting art to youth in the local government area. She has already had one interview for this job and has now been called in for a second interview. She has been told she has a "good chance" of getting it, and that she is up against 4 other people, which isn't bad odds.

With so much having gone wrong so far this year, I'm loathe to get my hopes up...

Dear Lord, please be with Stephanie tomorrow as she attends the job interview. Let them see her potential and give her the confidence to sell herself and show them that she would be great for the job. This would mean so much to her and lift her spirits and self esteem so much. Please be with her. Amen.