+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy

college

Joy

18-year-old took her college savings and bought the restaurant where she was a dishwasher

Samantha Frye, the newest owner of Rosalie's restaurant, is proving there's more than one way to invest in your future.

Canva

There are many way to invest in your future

Eighteen year old Samantha Frye has traded college life for entrepreneurship, and she has no regrets.

Frye began working at Rosalie's Restaurant in Strasburg, Ohio at 16 as a dishwasher, working up the ranks as a kitchen prep, server, then line cook. All while working a second job, sometimes third job.

After graduating high school, Frye started college at Ohio State with plans of studying business or environmental engineering. But when she came back to work a shift at Rosalie’s for winter break, an opportunity arose—the owners had planned to sell the restaurant.

"I was thinking that maybe [buying] was something I wanted to do," she told News 5 Cleveland. "I had savings because I was saving for college, so I had quite a bit of money saved away. And I was like, I could possibly do this."

Frye acted on that gut feeling, and used her college funds to buy Rosalie’s. Now she spends every day at her new business, either in the kitchen, on the floor or in the office meeting with sales reps.

Though Fyre's mother, Brandi Beitzel, confessed to USA Today that she wasn’t initially “on board” with her daughter abandoning college plans, over time she became very “proud” of her for forging her own path, and applauded her “drive and ambition.”

That sentiment is echoed both by Rosalie’s regulars and staff, who are amazing at the young woman’s drive and confidence.

“I just really think she's a great example of a young lady that is following her dreams and doing what she loves,” said Leanna Gardner, an employee.

It’s no secret that there are significantly less students attending college—down by about a million since the start of the pandemic. And while there are no doubt potential long term collective consequences to that, with exorbitantly high student loan rates, it’s easy to see why young adults would avoid massive debt for careers that don’t require a college degree.

Luckily, there are more efforts to make college an affordable option being made nationwide, like offering a free two years worth of college to graduating students.

And as Frye is proving by example—not going to college is certainly not a death sentence for one’s future. There are many ways to plant seeds for success. Honestly, college or no college, no matter which path is taken, there will likely be more uncertainty than there are guarantees. Perhaps the best bet then is trust those pings of intuition.

"You don't need college to make a decent living, and I think that's what a lot of people think nowadays," Frye attests. "Follow your instinct, honestly. If it feels right, just do it."


This article originally appeared on 5.22.23

From Your Site Articles
college
Family

Does infidelity have an expiration date? Man considers divorcing wife who cheated 20 years ago.

It happened so long ago. Should he just let it go?

via Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

A man considers divorcing his wife after learning she cheated 20 years ago.

Is there an expiration date for infidelity? If you learned your spouse cheated on you 10, 20, or 30 years ago, would it be any more or less significant than if it happened last week? Is it easier to forgive something that happened years ago or does their silence over all these years make the indiscretion even worse?

A Redditor recently posted that he’s divorcing his wife after learning she cheated on him 20 years ago and the commenters overwhelmingly support his decision. Why? It wasn’t necessarily that she cheated, but how she handled the situation.

“My wife (44F) and I (43M) have been married 20 years,” the poster wrote. “We started dating in high school when I was a junior and she was a senior. We were long-distance for her first two years of college while I was in high school and did one year at community college, then we went to college in the same city for a year and have lived together since.”

The poster later clarified that they were “long-distance,” but they were only about 3 hours apart and saw each other a couple of weekends a month.

The couple has two children, who are 19 and 17 years old. The poster says that their 20-year marriage had been “pretty good” until he learned the truth about what happened during the 2 long-distance years in college.

divorce, infidelity, ami

A group of friends having some drinks.

via Lisa Fotios/Pexels

​The couple got together with some of the wife’s college friends after Christmas when the conversation strayed into some very sensitive area. “Her old college roommate commented that it was crazy that we met in high school, had a few wild years in college, then ended up together,” the poster wrote.

The problem was they were together the entire time.

“The roommate started to tell a story, but my wife cut her off and said she was uncomfortable about it. I sensed something was up, so I said that we actually started dating in high school and were together for my wife's entire time at college,” the poster continued.

When it came out that they were together during his wife’s “wild” years, the old college friends got really quiet and the rest of the night was extremely awkward. When one of the roommates was leaving, she told the poster to have an “honest” conversation with his wife about their college years.

The next day, the wife admitted to sleeping with at least 10 men during her first 2 years of college when the couple was in a long-distance relationship. She also admitted that she introduced her future husband to 3 of them as “friends.” But she didn't think it was a big deal because it was a high-school relationship she didn't think would last.

infidelity, divorce, reddit

A couple having a heart-to-heart conversation.

via Mikhail Nilov/Pexels

The wife is still in contact with one of the men.

Now is where the husband has a real dilemma. Can he forgive his wife for cheating on him with a significant number of men while they were in a long-distance relationship and never telling him? The answer was no. The big reason was that she showed a complete lack of respect by parading the men in front of him.

“I've stood by my belief that cheating on me with multiple men for years is unacceptable no matter when it happened and the fact that she continued to maintain relationships with these guys right in front of me was an unacceptable amount of disrespect,” the poster said.

On January 2, the man filed for divorce from his wife. Five days later, he posted about the situation on the Am I Wrong Reddit subforum and the commenters overwhelmingly took his side. Some could understand a little cheating happening while they were long-distance, but no one could abide by the way she introduced her future husband to the men she slept with.

"I actually came into this thread thinking, ‘Well, I could understand him getting divorced over cheating in the past, but if it's a 20-year happy marriage and a one-time mistake while they were in the very beginning of dating, I'd try to work on it.’ But the continuous humiliation of having your girlfriend cheat on you while you're getting introduced to those men and still know one of them? Man, how do you get over that," Candy Puppet wrote.

“It was 20 years ago, but that amount of savageness would be hard to look past, especially when she still associates with the other men. That is just a continual slap." Thanos13 added.

They also praised the friend who told the poster to have a conversation with his wife.

"Honestly, her friend who took OP aside is a good human. Could have let it slide & let him go on clueless about the wife's past." Likeapuma wrote.

The post goes to show that there are no hard and fast rules to deciding how to deal with infidelity and some people are okay with forgiving an indiscretion that happened years ago. Getting carried away and sleeping with someone while in college is one thing, but few could forgive the way the wife seemingly shoved it in her husband’s face without him being aware years later.

From Your Site Articles
marriage
Joy

Parents bond over the embarrassing questions their kids ask when they go off to college

A viral series of TikTok posted by comedian Chip Leighton has parents laughing over the truly outrageous questions they get from their freshman kiddos.

Canva

They'll learn someday.

Heading off to college marks a major transition in a young person’s life—a distinct shift from childhood into adulthood.

Except, that shift isn’t always an instant transformation into complete self reliance, as many parents find out. In fact, lots of parents discover that their kids relied upon them for even the most basic information. Like, to a hilarious degree.

Chip Leighton, comedian and creator of the marriage/parenting themed TikTok series “The Leighton Show,” recently had parents share the wildest questions their college freshmen ever asked them after leaving home.

In the viral clip, we see oh-so innocent, oh-so bizarre questions ranging from "I can use my expired passport to get out of Mexico, right?” to “does the post office sell stamps?” to…wait for it…”what time is noon?”

Bless their hearts.

@the_leighton_show Posting this again for all the parents who just dropped kids off at college #teenager #text #college #freshman #funny ♬ original sound - The Leighton Show

After his original video got 2.3 million Leighton followed up with several more, each question more outrageous than the next—leaving parents virtually cackling.

Here are just a few gems:

“What’s grandma’s actual name?”

“Can I use the bathroom on a plane?”

“How often is annual?”

“Do we live above or below sea level?”

“How do I know when water is boiling?

“Pork chops are part of a chicken right?”

Of course, the comments sections of Leigthon’s videos were equally rife with hilarious anecdotes from parents.

One wrote, “My college freshman daughter: which one makes noise? Lightning or thunder?”

Another shared, “My college sophomore was recently filling out a job application and asked me if she was a veteran." Oh dear.

@the_leighton_show OK - the passport one was from a 29 year-old. All from your comments. #college #freshmanyear #teenager #text #funny #greenscreen ♬ original sound - 𝙷𝚊𝚗♡

Other parents went a different route, sharing comical misunderstandings their Gen Z kids have made.

“I told my college freshman son that something cost ‘sixty five hundred dollars’ and he told me to ‘speak English please,’” one parent wrote.

Another added "Daughter: What places have I been to? Me: Lists locations and Disney was one of them. Daughter: So I've never been to the US?"

While of course it’s fun to laugh at these (mostly cause we’ve all been there and thank god we aren’t there anymore) there could be something to be said of instilling a “there are no dumb questions” policy.

After all, going to college is an exciting experience, but it can also be a daunting and lonely one.

It’s a huge adjustment for teens to step into a new routine, new location, new friend group, new responsibilities…and all without having their normal support system close at hand. So even a simple answer to “how do I know which sock is the left one?” could be the very thing that provides a bit more emotional security during a big transition.

@the_leighton_show All from your comments. #teenager #college #freshman #text #humor #greenscreen ♬ original sound - 𝙷𝚊𝚗♡

And the bright side to all this—it’s easier than ever for parents to record these questions to bring up for a good laugh many years later.


By the way, Leighton has all kinds of hysterical comments gathered from teenagers, along with some other funny content. Find it all on his TikTok

From Your Site Articles
parents
Joy

Parents pull hilarious dorm room prank on their college son using life-size cutout

“Dad and I are always with you 😂”

@jillwagner81/TikTok

We spy a new parenting trend.

Sending kids off to college is a milestone filled with conflicting feelings, both for the kids and the parents. There’s excitement, pride and anticipation, plus nostalgia, loss and yearning all rolled into one pivotal life moment.

Perhaps one of the best tools to help cope with the heavier, more challenging emotions bound to arise is having a sense of humor. And some parents have it in spades.

Mom and content creator Jill Wagner had asked her son Hakin what he would like for his dorm room at Maryville University.

Hakin’s answer? Posters. Plain and simple. And it’s that lack of specificity that would land Hakin in a hilarious prank concocted by Mom and Dad.

In a clip shared to Wagner’s TikTok, we see Hakin shaking his head with disbelief as he walks in to see a giant cardboard cutout of his mom.

"Honey, I know you're gonna miss me so much; I got a life-size picture of me for your dorm. That way, if any girls try to come in your room, they can see me," Wagner says through a giggle.

Hakin, also laughing, says the line every parent of a teen has heard, "That is so embarrassing!” before telling his father to put it where nobody can see it.

Instead of a cardboard cutout, dad decided to go a little more old school—a photo of himself pointing to a laundry hamper, made into a poster, stuck right above the laundry hamper in Hakin’s room. Meta.

In her caption, Wagner wrote, “Dad and I are always with you 😂”

Enjoy the wholesome hijinks below:

@jillwagner81 @Hakin Wagner Dad and i are always with you😂 #maryville #moveinday #college ♬ original sound - Jill

Close to 500,000 people have watched the clip, with several chiming in to share that they would be incorporating the idea for their own kids. More embarrassment to come, it seems!

The college transition is sure to be one of heightened emotions. You can follow all the recommended guidelines for make it a little smoother—plan the move-in day accordingly, jot down meaningful messages to leave behind, create memories with one last family vacation, look into new hobbies—but at the end of the day, parents are still going to be feeling all the feels.

And just like any beautiful chapter in life, we are meant to savor the sweet along with the bitter. While it’s probably best to try to hold in those tears during the actual move-in day (it is the kid’s day, after all) it’s completely natural to let it all out on the car ride home.

Wagner’s delightful prank might have gotten some viral laughs, but it also highlights a more lighthearted, optimistic way for parents to take on what’s sure to be a day full of big feelings.

From Your Site Articles
family
Trending Stories