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When I was 26
Feb. 12th, 2016 08:55 amA conversation with a friend that included where I am today, at 49 years of age, and what I have accomplished so far and contrasting that with what he has now, at 26 years of age has prompted me to think about where I was at 26, and how different that was compared to now.
I turned 26 in December of 1992, and for the '92-93 school year I was living in the Kingdom of An Tir, in the town of Asland, Oregon, attending Southern Oregon State College as a Geology major.
I owned a small set of shelfves full of paperback books, a few boxes of kitchen toys, my clothes, a large number of stuffed animals (the only toys I had retained when I moved), and a few cotton SCA costumes that fell rather more on the "attempt" side of the scale than the "pre-1600 costume" side. The only thing I owned that was at all computer like was a Casio calculator wrist watch, which I was in such a habit of using when I needed to do basic arithmetic that I would often type in the numbers to add, look at the result, and then think "I knew that".
I didn't have a fabric stash--money was tight enough that one of my underdresses had been made from a sheet thanks to the time a year or so before, when I lived in the dormitory at the University of Oregon, that housekeeping had messed up and given me an extra sheet for the bed one week, so I cut it up and made a dress from it, and returned only the number they were expecting back.
I did have a small stash of cotton embroidery floss, thanks to a birthday gift I had received from a friend in Alaska a couple of years before, so that underdress had blue embroidery on the neck, cuffs, and strip near the elbows where I had attached the fabric to extend the sleeves since a single twin bed sheet isn't wide enough to go from wrist to wrist. So I embroidered the folded hem and used that to decorate the dress. How I loved that dress at the time, even though that straight band of nexk embroidery always sat funny on the round neck hole.
I did have some money in the bank, since I had taken out the max amount of student loan possible from the state of Alaska, but that money had to last until the next loan peroid. I didn't have a job, and didn't want one. Ok, the first summer I was in Asland I worked part time cleaning rooms at the motel two doors down, but that job ended when tourist season ended, because while I was her "best scrubber", I was also the newest on staff, and I kept asking for days off on holiday weekends (which was when the SCA events were). I decided I would rather live on a tight budget, not work, and have time to attend SCA events.
I made it to a lot of SCA events the three years I lived in Asland. Whilst I had no income, I was living with a slighty older boyfriend who worked full time in the bindary department at a print shop. He would have gone to those events if I hadn't been living with him, he had a good car, and he liked the company for road trips, so he brought me along, he paid for the petrol, and I think he even paid my site fees for the events. This is a big part of why I am willing to pay petrol today for my student friends to travel to events with me. I can't pay him back for that generosity, but I can pay it forward.
His generosity is also while I have a suit of armour today. He had a shop and basic armouring tools, so he gave me the supplies as a birthday gift and showed me how to do the work to build it. The only thing we couldn't do at his shop was welding the helmet together. However, he had a squire who worked as a welder at a boat building businesses. So we gave him the helm pieces and he gave us back a finished helm. When we asked him what we owed him he said "nothing". When we said "what about the cost of supplies?" He said "I took it to work and called it a test weld". We couldn't argue with that--the seams on my helm are tiny compared to those on a boat. The only reason I have an aluminium shield is because his boss at work had decided to throw away the two old computer cases now that the company had invested in modern computers. One case was large enough and thick enough to make his shield, the other mine. Salvaging is a good thing.
The year I was 26 I was still a couple of years from earning my first degree, had no assets anyone else would value, and the start of a large student loan debt that I didn't manage to pay off till 19 years later. However, I had the SCA and through it the connection to many friends and loved ones, many of whom I am still in touch with today. Back then I couldn't have predicted the path I would take that would one day lead to my having a PhD, a fun job that pays a decent wage and provides a smart phone as a perk, a computer, a house with land, a huge stash of quality fabric and other project supplies, a reasonably equipped workshop, and no debt other than the mortgage. However, I wouldn't have been at all surprised to learn that I would still be active in the SCA, through which I have many friends and loved ones. I would also have thought it cool to discover that I would one day live in Sweden and get to occasionally attend events in castles.
I turned 26 in December of 1992, and for the '92-93 school year I was living in the Kingdom of An Tir, in the town of Asland, Oregon, attending Southern Oregon State College as a Geology major.
I owned a small set of shelfves full of paperback books, a few boxes of kitchen toys, my clothes, a large number of stuffed animals (the only toys I had retained when I moved), and a few cotton SCA costumes that fell rather more on the "attempt" side of the scale than the "pre-1600 costume" side. The only thing I owned that was at all computer like was a Casio calculator wrist watch, which I was in such a habit of using when I needed to do basic arithmetic that I would often type in the numbers to add, look at the result, and then think "I knew that".
I didn't have a fabric stash--money was tight enough that one of my underdresses had been made from a sheet thanks to the time a year or so before, when I lived in the dormitory at the University of Oregon, that housekeeping had messed up and given me an extra sheet for the bed one week, so I cut it up and made a dress from it, and returned only the number they were expecting back.
I did have a small stash of cotton embroidery floss, thanks to a birthday gift I had received from a friend in Alaska a couple of years before, so that underdress had blue embroidery on the neck, cuffs, and strip near the elbows where I had attached the fabric to extend the sleeves since a single twin bed sheet isn't wide enough to go from wrist to wrist. So I embroidered the folded hem and used that to decorate the dress. How I loved that dress at the time, even though that straight band of nexk embroidery always sat funny on the round neck hole.
I did have some money in the bank, since I had taken out the max amount of student loan possible from the state of Alaska, but that money had to last until the next loan peroid. I didn't have a job, and didn't want one. Ok, the first summer I was in Asland I worked part time cleaning rooms at the motel two doors down, but that job ended when tourist season ended, because while I was her "best scrubber", I was also the newest on staff, and I kept asking for days off on holiday weekends (which was when the SCA events were). I decided I would rather live on a tight budget, not work, and have time to attend SCA events.
I made it to a lot of SCA events the three years I lived in Asland. Whilst I had no income, I was living with a slighty older boyfriend who worked full time in the bindary department at a print shop. He would have gone to those events if I hadn't been living with him, he had a good car, and he liked the company for road trips, so he brought me along, he paid for the petrol, and I think he even paid my site fees for the events. This is a big part of why I am willing to pay petrol today for my student friends to travel to events with me. I can't pay him back for that generosity, but I can pay it forward.
His generosity is also while I have a suit of armour today. He had a shop and basic armouring tools, so he gave me the supplies as a birthday gift and showed me how to do the work to build it. The only thing we couldn't do at his shop was welding the helmet together. However, he had a squire who worked as a welder at a boat building businesses. So we gave him the helm pieces and he gave us back a finished helm. When we asked him what we owed him he said "nothing". When we said "what about the cost of supplies?" He said "I took it to work and called it a test weld". We couldn't argue with that--the seams on my helm are tiny compared to those on a boat. The only reason I have an aluminium shield is because his boss at work had decided to throw away the two old computer cases now that the company had invested in modern computers. One case was large enough and thick enough to make his shield, the other mine. Salvaging is a good thing.
The year I was 26 I was still a couple of years from earning my first degree, had no assets anyone else would value, and the start of a large student loan debt that I didn't manage to pay off till 19 years later. However, I had the SCA and through it the connection to many friends and loved ones, many of whom I am still in touch with today. Back then I couldn't have predicted the path I would take that would one day lead to my having a PhD, a fun job that pays a decent wage and provides a smart phone as a perk, a computer, a house with land, a huge stash of quality fabric and other project supplies, a reasonably equipped workshop, and no debt other than the mortgage. However, I wouldn't have been at all surprised to learn that I would still be active in the SCA, through which I have many friends and loved ones. I would also have thought it cool to discover that I would one day live in Sweden and get to occasionally attend events in castles.