Chapter 3 BPOV
I was born near Vancouver but had recently moved to Montreal, my mom's hometown. Normally a high school sophomore wouldn't be too thrilled to be switching schools in the middle of their formative teenage years. I was thrilled. Although moving to Montreal wouldn't necessarily be considered traveling, it was for me. Finally after all these years I was going somewhere else. Somewhere new.
I had never even been on a plane - or a train for that matter. But I had always wanted to travel. My parents led a fairly conservative lifestyle. My mother, Renee never finished school so she worked at a retail store for minimum wage. My father, Charlie, was a career police officer. He was offered a much better position if he would move to Montreal and so we did. His twenty year-long marriage to Mom definitely helped in landing the job, given how it made him fluent in French over the years. My mother and I were thrilled. Renee was like me in that way, always wanting to travel and never doing it. Maybe I got the travel bug from her. I think I got it from all the books and movies I would watch. Charlie actually had a distant cousin on his mother's side that lived in Germany. But we never went there. Never even spoke about it.
Moving to Montreal meant more money, a bigger house and the ability for Charlie and Renee to help me with college if need be.
Starting at a new school was no fun at all, but getting to know a new city sure was. It was like a whole new world opened up for me. I loved going out with my mother into the city and just walking around. I didn't need a destination. I loved walking by the old buildings, the cafes and the museums. I loved to people watch and imagine what their lives were like. Were they from here? Were they born on another continent? And because nearly everyone in Montreal spoke French I could pretend I was in Europe. So many people, so many stories. And I wanted to discover them all.
My new high school was fine. The kids always treated the new people like lepers until they got to know you and then they loved or hated you. I wasn't a 'klick' kind of person, nor was I a loner. I made a few friends and I met my boyfriend on my first day of class. Well, we were friends first and then started 'dating' as it were. His name was Mike Newton. He was good looking, sweet, kind and athletic. We got along really well and I think I loved him. I think. I mean, how much does a 16 year old know about love? We had done some heavy petting and messing around but I just couldn't bring myself to have sex with him. I was certainly attracted to him and I sort of wanted to, but just before it would get that far I would panic. I would feel scared and unsure if I was making the right decision. Losing your virginity was a once in a lifetime thing and I just wasn't 100% sure that I wanted it to be with Mike. He was a virgin too and respected my decision although I could see that he was, at times, quite frustrated with me. But he never threatened to leave me or break up with me over it. He just kept telling me that it would happen for us when we were both ready. Great guy, huh? And I really believed him too. It did add a little to my guilt about it but he was very patient.
I wanted to go to college but I figured I'll be young only once and I wanted to use my energy to see the world while I could before I had to do school, career and family. I always heard people talk of their regrets and not seeing the world before they got older. Always saying 'next time' or 'next year' and it never happened. That would not be me. I decided to put off college for a couple of years and travel somewhere to earn money for college while seeing something new of the world. I had been a nanny and a babysitter for so many families over the years, both in Vancouver and in Montreal. I asked them all for letters of reference and then I went to an international au pair agency called the Volturi Connection and applied. There was a massive amount of paperwork and hoops to jump through but I passed them all.
For graduation, Charlie had contacted that long lost cousin of his in Berlin, Germany and sent me there for two weeks. The moment I saw that airline ticket I think I peed my paints a little - I know, TMI. But I did. I have never been that excited about anything. Berlin was practically the center of Europe from where I could imagine all different possibilities of traveling to other cities. And even if I stayed there the whole time, I mean, BERLIN people. Germany had some of the oldest cities around and of course let's not forget about the Disney castle!
Well if I wasn't sure that I wanted to travel before Berlin, I certainly was after. I had an amazing time with my older cousin Claudia while I was there. And while we never left Germany she took me everywhere within the country. Each city was more amazing than the other. Did you know that the town of Augsburg is over 2000 years old? 2000! Just wow!
I had promised my parents that I would remain at home until the end of the summer before leaving for any au pair position that I may be offered. I agreed. I wanted to spend more time with my friends and also with Mike. Mike was going to attend Concordia University in the fall.
I continued my nanny/babysitting stints throughout the summer and into the fall. There had been some offers for au pair positions but they were mainly long term contracts. I didn't want my first position to be more than 6 months. I wanted to be able to move on to another family in another area, following my original intention of not only making money but also seeing the world. So I remained in Montreal for the fall. Mike was pleased. So were my parents. I was not. By December I was starting to get antsy and almost considered a family in Italy for 14 months.
The day after I almost broke down and called the agency to take the Italian position, I received a call regarding a possible family from Chicago, Illinois in the US. It was for 6 months and they wanted to do a telephone interview. They had checked out my references and were interested in hearing more about me. The job would start as soon as I could arrange to get there.
The idea of going to Chicago for my first job really appealed to me. I wouldn't need to know another language to start, I would be working in or near a big city which is what I was used to, I would see some of the most famous museums in the world and I could also stay close enough to my home country to make my parents comfortable. It seemed like a win-win to me.
The day Angela Webber Cullen called me was the day I knew my life would never be the same again.