June 1st, 1993

Dear Bethany,

Well, I have been here for a little under four days now and I don’t really like it at all. I wish that you were already here. I will list the things that are bugging me today:

  • My mom won’t let me drive
  • I don’t have anywhere to live
  • I don’t have a promised moped
  • I can’t find a job because I don’t know where I am going to live
  • College is far away
  • No friends live close by
  • you still won’t be here for a week
  • My grandparents house is very boring
  • I am getting cabin fever
  • My cousins have school until the 17th
  • I only have $13
  • My GPA is 2.937, not 3.000
  • It’s cold
  • I miss you terribly

It just isn’t the same having hardships without you. They are harder. I feel like it doesn’t really matter as long as you are around. At least I will be able to call you in Chicago, and write. Right now I can hardly do either.

There are a few possibilities for living situations: I could rent a room in N8’s house, I could room with J. Pridmore, closer to FJC, or Dave, N8 and I could rent our own place, or I could live with Mom and Dad, which, in my mind is not an option.

My mom tends to think that somone needs to teach me how to drive here. When I told her that I had learned to drive virtually on my own, she insisted that she had sat in the car and coached me several times. I think that I would remember. I would not say so if it was not true. I have done the book-work for US Drivers Ed., I know the rules. This is starting to feel the same way it did when I was here before.

I hate living in someone else’s house.

I am sorry. I am formulating a bad attitude. I only wish you were here.


Weren’t I a stinker 13.5 years ago?

4 Responses to “June 1st, 1993”


  1. 1 Mother-in-law

    Hey, you were only 17, and facing a boatload of change! You navigated it all pretty well, all things considered!

  2. 2 Ariana

    I love the sentiment of the letter: I love you so much, everything stinks even more when you’re not here. Thanks for sharing!

  3. 3 ShackelMom

    Yup, sounds about right! Must have been a difficult summer, poor guy!

    (I did take you driving round and round the streets of Gingoog, making helpful and what I considered to be instructional comments and suggestions which may or may not have been recieved as such… You and Arturo were both learning to drive, and I took you both to get license the same day)

  4. 4 daniel

    Yeah, I do remember doing that driving. Sorry. Like I said, I was a stinker. Oh, and Grandma and Grandpa’s place is a haven of roots now. Boredom says more about the person than the place or company in which he finds himself.

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