Julie’s Senior Year at College

“I Know Where I’m Going”

Listen to Chapter 17, “Julie’s Senior Year at College”

Once again Julie’s dorm room was buzzing with activity and conversation, much as it had been when she had roomed with Sandra Lee, now Sandra Miller. Janelle, while an elementary education major like Sandra, was vastly different. She was wiry and energetic, with a nonstop smile and nearly nonstop chatter which entertained Julie—unless she was trying to complete a Counterpoint II assignment.

Janelle was outgoing and outspoken and became very animated in discussions involving controversial topics in any arena. Like Julie, she was a brilliant scholar. Julie, quiet and demure, enjoyed both the challenge of Janelle’s intellect and the camaraderie of her companionship. Julie felt an undeniable bond with Janelle, almost as if they had been sisters and best friends since they were little girls.

Unlike Sandra, Janelle really didn’t like boys very well even though she had three brothers. And Julie could understand much of Janelle’s rationale as she freely shared her many observations about male members of the species.

“What gives them the right to think they can control us?” Janelle would often ask rhetorically. “They treat women like possessions or property, not like persons,” she would say.

Julie agreed with Janelle’s assessment of men and boys, but she would usually end up saying, “But Bill’s not like most guys!” or “Howard’s not like that.” And Janelle would have to agree, at least about Howard, with whom she soon became acquainted through Julie. As for Bill, she could only take Julie’s word for it.

Julie played her senior piano recital early in the spring, and it was an overwhelming success. She played representative works of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and her favorite, Chopin. She was very surprised that Howard and Janelle had jointly planned, designed, and ordered a beautiful cake for her reception, along with matching cocktail napkins.

After all the guests had left the reception, Janelle could tell that Howard wanted to talk to Julie—alone. She excused herself by saying she would take the leftover cake back to the dorm.

In the empty auditorium, Howard and Julie sat side by side on the darkened stage on the piano bench, leaning back against the now-silent keyboard. Howard put his arm around Julie, surprising her somewhat.

“I wanted you to be the first to know, Julie,” he began. “I’ve had a job offer for next school year.”

“Howard, that’s wonderful! What and where?” Julie was truly delighted for him.

“It’s an exclusive little private boarding school in North Carolina—”

“North Carolina!” Julie wrinkled her nose and began imitating a thick Southern accent as she said, “Why on earth would y’all want to go there?”

Howard laughed at Julie’s ridiculous twang. “It’s not so bad! They tell me there’s a great music department with lots of interest in keyboard, and they need a superb organ and piano teacher. Apparently they heard about me from my tours last summer.”

“Well,” Julie said, “are you going to take it?”

“I think so,” said Howard, “but—” He stopped.

“But what?”

“They also need an excellent piano teacher for the overflow students—and a dean for the girls’ dormitory.”

Julie looked at him, startled, realizing what he had just said. “Oh, no!” she laughed, “not me! I will not be a girls’ dean!”

“Oh, it couldn’t be all that hard—just babysitting a bunch of girls—could it? Anyway, I’d love to have you in the music department with me. There are so many possibilities, projects we could accomplish together.”

“I don’t know, Howard. I don’t know what Bill’s going to want to do when he gets home from Vietnam, where he’ll want to live, or even when we’ll get married.”

“Well, couldn’t he go to North Carolina as easily as California? I mean, if he wanted to.”

Julie was silent. “I’ll think about it.”

Howard suddenly gave Julie a little squeeze, surprising her even more. But she said nothing.

As they walked back to the girls’ dorm, she felt Howard take her hand. “Julie,” he said, “you are my very best friend. I—I just want to work with you in our first jobs after graduation. You are so talented and smart. After these past two years of studying and performing together—well, I just don’t want to lose that!”

Julie knew it was true, the way she and Howard played duets in perfect synchronization with each other. It was almost as if they could read each other’s minds. Still, if Howard felt this strongly about her, about a future with her, why had it never occurred to him to become romantic, even though he had teased about marriage to her just so they could keep playing duets together? Not that she would have wanted that complication in her life! But it made her wonder….

It was Dean Cushman who called Julie into her office less than a week later with a letter she handed to Julie. “This came today from Orchill Hills Academy in North Carolina,” the older woman began. “They need a girls’ dean and a piano teacher.”

Julie opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Howard has not had time to contact them, and I haven’t given him a definite answer, anyway! He already gave them my name before he even talked to me!

“You are very well qualified, Julie,” Dean Cushman continued. “I have your cumulative folder here.” She leafed through the top sheets. “Have you ever considered being a girls’ dean?”

Julie shook her head.

Dean Cushman smiled and spent the next hour and a half telling Julie about the job of being a dormitory dean. Near the end, she lowered her voice slightly as she said, “There is one thing you need to be very much on the alert for. Sometimes there are… things… that happen in girls’ dorms—things… between girls. You’ve got to recognize the signs and put a quick end to… those things.”

Julie really didn’t know what to say. She just nodded and smiled. But she took the letter from Orchill Hills and the photos of the campus it contained. She was quite impressed with the school itself and was totally breathless at seeing the beautiful scenery of the North Carolina country. “God’s country,” Dean Cushman had said, so very different from the dry hills of Riverdale Valley. It would be an adventure!

That night Julie sat down and wrote a long letter to Bill. The next day she got a letter from Bill, one that he had written and mailed long before she had mailed hers. Despite his resolve to not hold her to any promises of marriage before he returned home, he talked more and more about what their life together might be like.

“I want four children,” was one of his frequent comments. They had never even talked about children when they had been together! Other than how to keep from having babies right then! Now Julie realized that having four babies—two boys and two girls—had always been her dream, too! And to have Bill’s children! She could think of nothing she would love better. But what about her piano teaching career? She decided she would call Sandra in Simi Valley.

“What’s saying you can’t have both?” her childhood friend said. “You could teach at Orchill Hills a couple of years, then after you and Bill have kids, you could teach piano lessons at home, maybe even keep your Orchill Hills students if you lived close enough to the Academy.”

Julie thought that made sense. She loved Bill so much and didn’t want to lose him! Yet, how could she possibly pass up this opportunity to teach at such a prestigious place as Orchill Hills? She wrote another letter to Bill.

It surprised her to receive a reply from Bill so soon. “I have never thought about living anywhere else besides California, Kitten,” he wrote back. “I was born in Los Angeles, and now that Mom has moved to Riverdale and your Momma lives there, too, how could we possibly live in North Carolina!”

But, like Julie, Bill wrote another letter the very next day. “You won’t believe this,” he began, “but I got a letter today from my oldest brother Tom. You probably didn’t know that he moved to North Carolina a few years ago when he married Molly White, who has a daughter named Annie. He’s a doctor there, and he says that it’s a great place to live and raise a family.”

Julie’s heart skipped a beat, as she sighed contentedly, looked longingly and lovingly at Bill’s senior picture on her dresser. She clutched the precious ring Bill had given her very close to her heart.

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