Mandy’s Dad visited her within a week of her arrival to her new apartment, and they spent some long overdue time together. During his visit, he told her to stay away from the strip until she was old enough, joking that he didn’t want to have to bail her out of trouble if she broke the law trying to get into a casino. Upon expressing her concerns for the expenses, he assured her things were fine. Money had been put into trust for a long time for her, and some of the interest he’d invested smartly and money from that went back into the trust. He’d arranged for money to come out of that for her living expenses (rent, utility, insurances) and tuition, as well as a monthly spending allowance for various needs, and occasional wants.
They did some touristy things while he was in town, including a show or two, before he had to leave. The following week Michael came to visit, and they had a great time, though Michael did sneak off a time or two to get to a party he’d learned about. After her visits, and with no more guests incoming, she would alternate time between learning how to use the car her Dad had gotten her, finding her way around town and the UNLV campus, and locating things like a dentist and a doctor. One of the things she wanted to do now was get an IUD. When she explained this to her Dad, she told him it was less about birth control (though that was a bonus, and it wasn’t like she was planning to be super active), it was more about controlling the horrible periods she tended to have. When at the apartment, she would adjust things to her liking, until things really started to feel like home to her, as well as review the course catalog for the university in order to finalize what she wanted to do.
When she went in to register, she found that she was able to skip some of the classes she needed to take (general education courses), due to a combination of scoring reasonably well on her SATs and having taken classes that were considered advanced or qualified for credit (though most of those came from her prep school in California). After registration for school, she explored other options she’d never really had the opportunity to do before, the main one that she looked for a local pagan community, and found a few. She hesitated before reaching out, hearing her mom’s voice echoing in the back of her head, but eventually she did, just to spite that voice, and she was welcomed.
When school began, she did her best with her classes, and tried to experience ‘typical’ college life, trying to do heavy socialization in addition to studying. For a time, a sorority had their eye on her too. She was always careful to mind her drink at the parties, and while she sometimes had fun, she found that often it just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and stopped trying to do college parties. As a result of her pulling away from campus socialization, the sorority lost interest, but her academics improved.
From time to time she would feel down, due to not having much access to Michael – not like she did before her move to Boston. Even so, he was a phone call away, and they could chat or text for a while, which helped. By the end of her first semester, she looked at the options that lay ahead of her, finally making the decision to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in both her major (Music, Vocal specialization), and purse certification in music technology, after which she would work on her minor (Music, Composition), which had many of the same required classes as her major.
While this meant she would have to work hard and have no semester long breaks, she reasoned that she could afford to give herself this challenge, since she didn’t need to worry about working while studying. Outside of schoolwork, she did make an effort to have a social life of some kind – she just didn’t do it at parties or what she termed Greek League (frats/sorority) functions. The pagan group was great, and a relaxing thing for her to turn to when she was particularly stressed. Her dating life didn’t start out terribly well, though whether it was due to guys she went out with or her general inexperience she couldn’t say. None of them lasted more than a handful of dates at best, and eventually, she took a break from trying.
It was during a Pagan Pride event that she met Conor. He was an international student, from Ireland on a visa studying music and drama at Nevada State while staying with relatives. He was lovely to look at, listen to and to be around, and was great at telling stories. Not usually one to be shy, she found herself so around him initially, though before the end of that day managed to ask him out for coffee. Before long, they were dating regularly, and the relationship was a good one. They took things at a pace each of them were comfortable with, and while he had a bit of a temper, it was typically a quick flare-up and then a cool down, and never directed at her. When he was furious, he was almost eerily calm and quiet.
After they’d been together a while, he would sometimes stay over since she lived on her own, and he didn’t. Those were good times – especially appreciated when there was a thunderstorm. Often, they talked music, and if he had a play coming up, she’d help him run lines. Other times they’d talk history, even delving into what they knew of their family histories a little, with Mandy explaining she’d always been told one of her ancestors was Sarah Winchester, while Conor explained that, while he didn’t think he could claim ancestry on it (though his family did so without proof), that he was named for a legendary king, albeit a shorter version.
Their relationship ultimately lasted not quite two years. He was an immense help to some of her studies (she struggled at times with piano, and her foreign language course). After that year and change, however, they broke up. Cody had to head back home; his visa was nearly up, and his mom was sick. The idea on his part was that it was unfair to her to keep her in a long-distance relationship. While it hurt a lot to see him leave, she understood. They kept contact after, and while it was fairly frequent at first, it’s been more sparse lately. Mandy’s guess, though he’d never specified, was that either his mother had gotten worse, or he’d found someone new.
It’s been not quite six months since, and while it still hurts to think about him she’s doing her best to move on. Since then, thanks to having taken an extra class here or there, she managed to graduate and earn a Bachelor’s degree in both Music, Vocal Specialization; and Music, Composition. The added bonus? She’d managed within the first year to achieve a certification for Music Technology.
The extra classes after she and Conor broke up, helped keep her mind off of the breakup, resulting in her often being too tired to do much more than keep basic contact with people. Now that it’s all over, she’s not sure what to do with herself. The only options she sees at the moment is whether to continue school and pursue a Masters That was an option of reluctance, admittedly. Not wanting to spend more of her Dad’s money than she had to, as well as not really wanting to do more schooling (coupled with wondering if it was really all that worth it).
Another option was to find some kind of work. She had a good enough education by this point to hopefully put her into something concerning music, but she wasn’t sure. She just needed something different for a while, though she knew that what she would love to do is just sing. It was something she’d always loved doing.