After spending my teen years in Chattanooga, living on number 7 green of a golf course..poor us, attending GPS, a private girls’ school, falling in major love with Jim,(way more about him later) the president of the Senior class of Baylor, the  boy’s school, I was ready to have the summer of my life upon graduation..not so fast, missy.  The DAY AFTER I GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL, we moved to Rochester, New York (for my dad’s job–puhleeeze) . 

So, instead of spending the summer at the country club pool with all my friends and skipping off to the University of Tennessee like everyone else I knew…my boyfriend dumps me for some girl who is more “advanced”.(and I’m being kind here)  and here I was in Rochester, NY…which I don’t think I had ever heard of and am sure I didn’t know where it was.

I knew NOT ON PERSON, and was about to start college at SUNY at Buffalo. knowing NOT ONE PERSON.   It was cold, lonely, grey, huge and, well, Buffalo.   The only thing I remember knowing about Buffalo was that  the football star OJ Simpson played there, and, well,  we all pretty much know where that went.  Story of my life.