I also dressed down, and stole a drink from work. Two of my best friends final­ly met each oth­er. They got along famous­ly, bet­ter than any of my oth­er friends in the past. I sup­port­ed one on the biggest deci­sion of his life. The oth­er told me that I had always been her hope­ful out of the round of inter­views for my job, over a chick­en sand­wich and some onion rings. I learned the four Cs of dia­mond appraisal, and saw a car­bon spec through a loupe for the first time.

I met two cats; one rolled into my lap while play­ing Double Dash with the best kids in the world. A fam­i­ly inspired me, and I dared to dream of some day hav­ing my own.