To Forever Friends and Funtyme

It was the spring of 2000. I was 16 and desperate to make some serious money. My parents had been telling me forever that they'd be happy to pay for my college, the actual academics, but that if I wanted to move out of the house, I’d be paying for my own rent or room and board. This was obviously generous and I understood. I wanted to go to Michigan State and live in the dorms! As the oldest of five kids, I was itching to get away from little kids and get some freedom and space of my own! Needless to say, I had a lot of money to make! 

Our local mall was having a job fair in the spring and I applied to several places that day including Funtyme Adventure Park- a putt putt, go-cart, and arcade place. 

None of those applications went anywhere... or so I thought...

As I continued searching and applying, I ended up landing an amazing babysitting job that was a perfect fit. I was set to have a busy summer.

In May, weeks and weeks and weeks after that job fair, I received a call from Funtyme asking me if I'd come in for an interview. I didn't want to lose an opportunity by declining so I went anyway just to get a feel for it. I got offered a job there.  I decided to keep both jobs reminding myself what I was saving for. 

June 1st, 2000 I started my first day at Funtyme and it completely changed my life.

I began to get to know three friends, Corey, Eileen, and Sara who went to a different high school and were two years older than me. I had just finished my sophomore year and they had all just graduated. We weren't close at first, but by the time summer 2001 rolled around and they all came back to work another summer, they were my people. They had adopted me into their group. Tasha was another stray they picked up after she started working that winter ;) Through spending time with Corey, Eileen, and Sara, we were introduced to Laurie.  

Funtyme was my second home for ten years... TEN YEARS. And those wonderful friends I met there were and are some of the most important humans in my life. We spent days working- making schedules, playing M.A.S.H, flirting with go-cart guys, counting tickets, polishing golf balls, making pizzas, setting up birthday parties. We spent nights at bonfires, bars, birthday dinners, ice cream shops, house parties and countless evenings staying up until all hours talking and laughing... a lot. They were by my side through my teenage years, my 20s, and now my 30s and ALL the growing up and life changes that happen during those decades... wow.   

Through all those years we’ve lived together and lived apart. Sometimes we were so geographically close, we were literally only a bedroom away or less than a mile (Josh and I lived .7 miles from Eileen and her husband for almost 8 years). Other times we've been as far away as California, South Dakota, Nashville, Chicago, and throughout Michigan.

We’ve had boyfriends, breakups, been a part of each other’s weddings. Oddly enough most of us wouldn't have met our husbands if we hadn't worked at Funtyme.  

We’ve experienced life and death together- crying together through miscarriage, attending funerals, sending flowers and cards, and making meals for one another through loss and celebrations, and showing up at the hospital to meet each other’s babies. 

There have been times where we’ve seen each other every single day for weeks at a time and others where we go months in between visits.

Somehow, through all the changes and growth, even when I don't get to see these five incredible people as often as I would like, I know if I picked up the phone at any moment of any day and needed anything, each of them (or their husbands) would drop anything in a second to be there. Friendship like that is worth the effort.

That little job I didn't think I would ever get turned out to be where I was given so much of my extended family and I am so so grateful.