The Pond

Chapter 1 : After High School

Maddie

I would randomly run into him during my two years of college. Sometimes it would be at this bar downtown called Canal Side or at field parties. Every time I came home from college, he would be with someone new. I too of course dated a few guys on and off, nothing serious. After graduating from hotel management, I moved home, worked my butt off working three jobs. I worked seven days a week, sometimes two jobs in one day. My parents let me live with them rent free so I could save money to buy a house and after 3 years from graduating Lakeshore I bought a 5 bedroom, 2 ½ bathroom, large open concept kitchen/living room house on the lake. I moved in and when I wasn't working at one of my three jobs, I worked on the house fixing it up and eventually opened 'the Ikan House Bed and Breakfast'. I lived there for the first year of operation. During the summer the BNB was super busy. I ended up moving out and back in with my parents so I could use the 5th room as a sellable room. In one summer, I made enough money to cover the bills and mortgage for half the year and after my first year in business I was able to cover all expenses. In my second year I was able to turn a profit, go back to school locally for photography, and put a large amount down towards the mortgage of the BNB. Once I graduated from the photography program I decided I would start a small business. I took pictures for family and friends, but in a small-town, word travels fast. It wasn't long before I had friends of friends calling and asking if I could take photos for them as well. I decided to capitalize on the holiday shoots like Easter and Christmas and specialty shoots. A year later I had enough money to make a down payment on my very own house. I also lucked out because my childhood home went on the market for a steel of a deal. I had to have my parents co-sign since I already owned a property. For the next 6 months my life was super busy, again. Looking back, I didn't leave myself much time to have a life outside of my businesses. At the time all I could focus on was ensuring my businesses were successful. I would wake up head to the BNB, cook and clean, check people in or out, then in the afternoon I would book photoshoots, I rented a space for them. In the evenings I would come home and work on my house. My house was actually perfect. It was a three-bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow. The thing that made it perfect was the back room. You walk up the driveway into a carport, then into a mudroom, to the left is the entire house, a small laundry closet/ hallway then turns into the kitchen. Turning left from the kitchen was a dining room that was huge, head left again down a hallway which leads to the bathroom and three bedrooms. Straight from the dining room down three steps was a living room. But if you turned right from the mudroom then you have the back room. When we lived here growing up my dad built this room as an addition for my sister and I would have a playroom, but since I bought the house, I have been working on upgrading this backroom into my studio. Every day was the same BNB, photoshoots, and reno. Once I finished the studio, I moved all my stuff, it made it a little easier, I could relax or do stuff around the house between clients. In my fourth year of running the BNB and second year running the photography business I finally felt like I could breathe. Both businesses were running successfully, I hired my first ever summer employee at the BNB, she was responsible for cleaning, I still went in at 7am and cooked breakfast, but was always gone by 9am leaving Paige to tend to everything. She was a good kid; I paid her $13.00 an hour and she worked from 9am to 1pm every day. Being done at 9 left me time to go home, work in the office which was just one of the bedrooms until noon then switch to the studio for the afternoon. With all the reno's completed my evenings became lonely. For the last seven years I always had something on the go. I mean I made time for my friends here and there but in that time they all created their own lives too. So, I decided to start photographing places around town at night and the occasional wedding or special event. That's when I discovered my new favorite place in town, this hidden pond. I would hike there at least twice a week. Noone was ever there either. It was so peaceful and everytime I went, there was always something new to photograph. One day while I was sitting on this random dock I was thinking about life and how I needed to stop letting my career suck the life out of me and it was time I started to have some fun again. My birthday is coming up and I will be 25. It's high time I celebrate and this year I want to go all out. I only hope my friends will care enough to join me after being MIA for so long. I sat at the pond a while longer making reservations and plans to throw myself a huge party.