kristaphillips We all have moments in our lives that we have to make a choice.
During my Senior year, I started praying about what to do after graduation. I really liked math, and excelled in numbers. My high school assessment tests advised me to go into engineering, but, well, that just didn’t sound like my cup of hot chocolate. (I don’t do tea…)
But, I also was good at writing. I loved my Creative writing/composition courses at the local college I was taking (I participated in a program where you went to ‘college’ for your senior year and it gained you college and high school credits…). It made me excited and sparked this fire in me.
What sparked a bigger fire in me though was… a boy. The one I met in a Christian chat room. The one who thought I was beautiful (I had a pretty low self-esteem so that was huge), made me laugh, and laughed at my lame jokes. Most importantly, he loved Jesus so very very much and actively sought God’s will for both of our lives. (Yet another Krista story someday…)
We prayed and prayed and prayed, and even though I DID want to write, and planned to eventually go to college, we knew that we were meant to be together and the miles that seperated wouldn’t work for very long. He lived in NC (and was over 4 yrs older than me) and I in MN, so the day after my HS graduation, I moved in with him.
LOL. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I know every good Christian woman just choked and sputtered there for a moment.
But I really did, kinda, move in with him. He lived with his parents at the time, so I slept in his room and he slept either a.) on the couch, b.) out in his small ‘building’ his parents had built for him (think storage shed with h/a) or c.) on the floor of his room (sshhh… don’t tell my mom…).
I eventually moved into our apartment when it was ready, and Scott and I were married 4 months after my move. I was 18 at the time, working as a receptionist/cashier, but still, I dreamed. I wanted to write. I just had NO idea where to begin. And, well, I was a newlywed. Nuff said.
One day, I decided to come up with a story. Gotta start somewhere right? I had an idea that had been brewing in my head for a while, so with the help of my wonderful, supportive husband, I sat down and wrote an outline (something I’ll probably NEVER do again.) I still have that outline somewhere in a box:-) Then I started to write. I got the first three chapters down pretty fast, but then KABLAM. I was slammed in the head with a WRITER’S BLOCK!
I also had what we all refer to as a serious drain on our emotions, wallet, and time. AKA: A baby!
