My friend, Jill

I met my friend Jill back when I was a Junior at Penn State. Jill was 26 and the National Pres. of our service sorority, Kappa Phi and our lives crossed when I attended the National Convention in Rockford, Illinois. I could devote many pages to that wonderful trip I took with my PSU sorority sisters (some of whom are still my very close friends to this day), but I have reserved this piece for Jill.

After the National convention, Jill and I started to write back and forth and fast became very good friends. I still have so many of the letters that she wrote because she offered so much insight and HUMOR!! My friends and I thought Jill was very cool since she was 26 and actually had a real life JOB where she made MONEY--we as soon to be seniors couldn't wait to have a job other than working in the dining hall or waitressing. Jill did have one strike against her--she's an Ohio State grad. We soon forgave her for that.

Even though Jill lived near Columbus, OH, she and I became very good friends while I was at PSU. We wrote a ton of letters to each other and then...there were the phone calls..................
I knew Jill was a night owl, so I used to call her many times in the wee hours usually after my roomies and I would come back after a night at the Skellar or Gaff (bars at PSU). I remember one call where I talked to her for close to 3 maybe 4 hours. I don't recall very much of what we talked about because I had had far too many Coors Lights that night. She said it was quite funny to talk to a person while they were drunk and then talk to them as they regained their sobriety!

During our many phone calls and some visits she made to PSU, Jill and I joked that she and I knew a little about a lot of things and what she didn't know I did and vice versa. We said we should have our own cable access show called "Jill and Lauren Know Everything"

Jill and I also took a trip to Key West, FL together before I graduated. What a blast--although I got a very bad sunburn. Jill drove all the way to Pittsburgh to fly out with me because I had never flown on a "big plane" before. What a good friend! On our way back on the plane, Jill wrote down a title of a Jimmy Buffett song-- I love the now--on the back of her plane ticket stub and gave it to me. She gave that to me because she said I worried too much about the future and should just take care of the stuff in the "now."

I still carry that ticket stub in my wallet and read it every once in a while to calm my fears about the things I have no control over.

Jill opened my eyes to "wonder." She had said that people should never lose their sense of wonder about things and the world around them. How right she was. Since that talk we had close to 18 years ago, I rediscovered my sense of wonder and have never let it go. It is this sense of wonder that helps me in my job as a science teacher, it enables me to join in the fun of playing and discovering new things with my girls and most importantly, this wonder helps me in my relationship with God--to fully appreciate and feel blessed by the life He gave me, the people in my life and the world around me.

Thank you Jill.