A

Pen Pal

Dear Evelyn,
I have a lot of respect for you for being the one who takes initiative by reaching out to old friends and rekindling friendships. It's been three years since I moved to Las Vegas and I haven't kept in touch with most people from The Valley. I only talk to you, Marcela, and Amna but aside from them there's no one who's really worth the effort. I feel like we're all allowed to miss someone and also not want them back in our life.

I lost one of my few local friends, Heather, a few weeks ago. I went on a walk with her and her neighbor Kelly. The last time we hung out was at the Tiki Bar for my 22nd birthday. We were busy catching up at the park when she made fun of a selfie I took. She told me I needed to wear make up. I confronted her and told Kelly that women are supposed to lift each other up instead of tearing each other down. Kelly sided with me and I decided to throw a jabber at Heather. I brought up an old fight we had where I didn't lend her money, because she was being reckless. She was paying a guy's cable bill who she met online and bragging about about how she paid a strangers grocery's bill since they couldn't afford it. Then she was planning on going water skiing in San Diego that same weekend and wanted me to give her gas money. She promised she would be honest with me and expected me to do the same. I told her that she needed to be more responsible with her finances and that it was her fault she was in this position to begin with. Long story short, she started yelling so loud she turned red like a tomato. I thought I was about to get into my first fight but she just stormed off instead. It was so embarrassing since people were staring and the whole situation was super trashy. Kelly and Heather were parked outside of my house for like an hour but I refused to come out. I ended up blocking them and have not looked back since.

I'm in the same boat when it comes to finishing up my Bachelors degree. I changed my major and plan on becoming a registered nurse, but I can already sense the stress and fear the school loans that come with it. I hope I'll be a great pediatric oncology nurse and if my passion for the medical field is still alive, then I will pursue becoming a nurse practitioner. Best of luck in School and it's okay to not finish getting your degree in four years. I get frustrated about it too but life happens. We can always retake a course if need be and each of us have a unique path that will come with its ups and downs.

I am still working with the same Primary Care Doctor that we talked about, and I got to remove surgical staples from someone's head recently. It was super cool! Dakota keeps on telling me that most people make friends at work. I'm paranoid about things going south and still having to see them at work. The pandemic has made it hard to make friends but I will try to put myself out there by volunteering or maybe I can take a yoga class. It's a big city and I hope I find the right circle of friends here.

Dakota and I are getting ready to begin house hunting but the housing market has skyrocketed. A two bedroom house in the Henderson suburb cost about $400,000. I can't believe that it almost cost half a million dollars for a house and I am hoping this inflation will come down soon. We may have to wait a few more months and I'll keep my eye out for a good deal. Also, we found this pretty cat by a park and he followed us home. We adopted him and named him Simba. The future looks quite promising!