Loving Mia

Chapter 4. Mia's History

Sunday seemed to be one of the longest days of her life. Mia tried to do everything she could to calm down her nerves. She went to the park and watched people walk their dogs and kids play. She went to the mall and bought a lot of self-help books. She figured she'd need every book she could get about relationships, being in one was hard enough, but two?? Unfortunately for her, there weren't any books about relationships with two men. She did find some on how to date multiple guys without getting caught but didn't think that's what she needed.

She did not want to tell her friends what the guys had told her. She knew they'd throw a huge "I told you so" in her face. Neither did she want to talk to her mother about this. Being a strict religious Christian woman, her mother would probably have a heart attack if she went to her for advice.

After roaming around aimlessly in sort of daze for four hours, Mia returned home and fixed herself something to eat. She thought about her life and how she ended up in this situation.

Her mother was very proud of her for being independent and strong. After all, Mia was the only person in their small southern town who had ventured off to California and hadn't looked back. Her mother bragged about how she got a job working for rich White folks and how well she was doing, which of course made everyone in her family despise her. Luckily, Mia was an only child. She couldn't imagine being compared to her sisters and brothers over her life. She had a feeling her mother would make them hate her too.

Staying in a small town, which had stopped growing years ago and didn't even have a mall, unless you considered Wal-mart a mall, and getting knocked up and on welfare was not the way Mia had wanted to live her life. Her family had considered it a way of life; Mia felt she had options.

When she finished community college, she wanted to go to a university. Her mother, along with the rest of her family members, thought she'd lost her mind. What would she do at a university? She was a poor little country Black girl. She hated it when people doubted her.

Mia had taken out a school loan and took the greyhound bus to Cleveland State University in Cleveland, MS. She had taken classes in business administration. She had studied hard and worked part-time to support herself. When it was time for her to graduate, the only person who showed up was her mother.

Her aunts, uncles, and cousins hadn't showed up. Her mother made excuses for them, but Mia knew they were only being spiteful. She had showed them she could succeed on her own without their help. Her mother was proud that she had graduated, but she couldn't understand why Mia didn't marry one of the nice college men she had dated. Mia had tried to tell her she didn't go to college just to get married and be a housewife. What was the point in going?

With her bachelor's degree in Business, Mia thought for sure she'd find a good job somewhere in the south. She was wrong.  After being constantly passed up because of the color of her skin, she found herself working as a cashier to support herself, a cashier at Wal-Mart. She was pissed to say the least. She had gone to college, graduated with honors and all she could get was a cashier job? No wonder people didn't succeed in the south, education didn't matter, in fact they acted as if they hated to see an educated black woman.

When she told Joyce how unhappy she was, she had told her to hop on a plane and head to California. At first, Mia hadn't wanted to go, she didn't know anyone in California except Joyce, and she hadn't seen Joyce in years. Joyce had been her best friend from childhood. They met at a playground when Joyce family was visiting the south and Mia's mother had taken her to the park. They were only six and had only played together for one day, but it had been enough to make a friend for life. Then, one of her uncles made a remark about how she had two college degrees and still hadn't done anything with her life during Thanksgiving dinner.