Hi Everyone! This is Part 2 of my first Blog. This website, and social media, are such a new experience for me. I’m grateful for everyone who visited here, and for the purchases of my book, but what’s really wonderful is having contact with my old friends and family. If you haven’t seen my posts on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter yet, there’s some old pictures of me and my siblings there @nitabarnesauthor.
Part 2:
After working 14 months at Bank of America, friends from high school who were completing their college education at the University of the Pacific, encouraged me to join them on a backpacking, hitchhiking trip through Europe in the autumn of 1973. I had to give my boss my resignation and it was extremely stressful and emotionally painful– but I knew if I didn’t, I might never have such an opportunity again. Which turned out to be the case!
Returning from Europe I lived for several months with my travelling friend in Oceanside, California. After a while, I decided I wanted to be a Home Economics teacher (interesting fact: I did not know how to cook and I barely knew how to sew LOL). I moved to Portola, California to live with my retired parents, worked part-time, and attended Feather River Junior College in Quincy, California. After one semester, I returned to San Francisco where I had two different jobs and lived at four separate addresses.
Life took a big turn when I met my life-long friend Selena who told me about what Jesus Christ had done to change her life in amazing ways. I desperately needed that to happen for me too, and it did!!, and I am eternally thankful!
Two years later, Selena and I and some of our other friends moved to Mobile, Alabama to be part of a larger church group. Some of us were able to work for New Wine Magazine, an international Christian magazine that we all had subscribed to and read for years. Working there was a huge blessing and being part of the staff was like being part of a big family.
Three years later, I met and married my husband Larry, of 38 years as of January 2021. I moved to be with him in Houston, Texas, where both our daughters were born. After our second daughter was born, I left my full-time job and was able to homeschool. After my father passed away, our family moved to Nevada to be close to my mother in Reno. I homeschooled for a total of eight years in Texas and in Nevada. They were probably the best years of my life.
After our daughters returned to public school, I worked full-time at two local companies in Dayton, Nevada, the Department of Education in Carson City, and at the Nevada Legislature.
Currently, I am thoroughly enjoying being retired and spending as much time as possible with my two grandchildren. Trips to Reno to Wild Island this summer are on our list of things-to-do.