With a little help from my friends...

So, I have been living here, on my own, for almost a week now... and it's weird but to an extent, it really is like a new chapter of your life.  You really do not see the faces that you used to see, and some friends that you had, seem gone now.  Of coarse, there are others that may even surprise you with how willing they are to remain in contact with you.  Thank goodness for the world we live in now!  Texts, calls, and even facebook can provide all the connection we need.  It has been really helpful since I have been gone to have all of those connections still.  It reminds me that even though I have left the place geographically, I did not have to leave everything there... I did not even have to leave the me I was there.  I am still that person, just more room to grow, and those people, those who keep reaching out to me... they are still part of my present, I did not just leave them in my past.

And the past is a funny thing... One of the most, semi-ironic things that happened to me lately involves my past quite throughly.  When I started college, I was not even sure if my major was the exact thing I wanted to do.  So when and opportunity came for me to take an internship/co-op, I JUMPED on it, and lo and behold, I was hired.  My boss then was a graduate student in my program.  A really nice woman who showed me that I was good at this, and that it was a good fit for me.  Well, just yesterday that same young woman took me to where I would be starting work tomorrow.  She showed me where to park, where to go in the building, even how to get there from my apartment.  She then took me out to lunch, and reminded me of how young I am and how I shouldn't settle for ANYTHING at this point in my life.  Apparently her office is right across the hall from where I will be working after all my training is done and everything!  Really, who would have thought life could go so much full circle?

But really, I suppose the point of this post is always keep yourself open to your friends first and foremost.  They know you, you are, who you were... and they may even have a good chance of who you will become...

New Keys, New Things, New Dreams..

I suppose this post is more to play catch up than anything else.  It was a week ago that I moved my stuff in to my apartment.  It's funny, there is such a weird and yet strong satisfaction when you realize that you own furniture.  It is not your parents furniture, it is yours.  I mean... I own a bed, a dresser, a desk, a couch, a chair, end tables, coffee tables... COUNTLESS things for the kitchen, it brings about a bizarre sense of accomplishment, of growing up. However it also adds to the burden of packing and moving everything.

Thankfully I have family that helped with that. The day before the move saw myself struggling to close one chapter of my life.  You see, I have been working at my College after graduation on some contracts and then helping a professor and personal friend there revamp a course. It was hard to leave that day after work, and say goodbye to so many friends that who knows when I shall see them again.  My boss, the one I was helping with the course, provided a never ending line of food that kept people coming in and out all day, wishing me the best.  It was exactly the kind of thing you hope for when you are about to step off the precipice and into the unknown. It was hardest to say goodbye to her though.  For all intent and purpose, she was another mother to me.  My mother on campus, with whom I could get away with saying or talking about anything with.  It is strange not being able just to walk in to her office now...

Anyway, on 1 October, I left college life, for awhile at least, and headed home to help my father and a neighbor pack.  It took us 4 hours to load my Uncle's catering truck that we were using as a moving van.  I was certain that we were not going to fit everything in, but we did!  :-)!  Thanks Grandpa Gary for that! :).  It was a weird feeling then, also, to see everything packed into a place that was seeming too small to fit everything, all your clothes, and furniture, and things.

Exceedingly early on Saturday the second, we started out to make the move! After about 400 miles, we had achieved our goal, and with in a matter of minutes I had a set of keys in my hand and I was making my way up into my new apartment, my parents began unpacking and I ran through the inspection with one of the leasing professionals.  Than for the next several hours, it was all a business of moving...

At the end of the day.  Sitting down when it was done, seeing everything in it's place, and everything set out, it was like opening a new book, but realizing there is nothing written on the page.  That is what the first few days living here on my own have felt like too.  It seems like until this point in my life, there has been a script.  I had been following some guideline, but now, that safety net isn't there anymore.  I am seated with a bunch of blank pages I have to fill.... It's strange, kind of horrifying, but exhilarating at the same time.

This is my new beginning.

At the beginning...

So, many of my friends have blogs... and many of them have a theme, be it to act as a recruitment aide for a college, or to review movies, to keep us up to date with the news in a fun way, or whatever it may be.  Some of my friends even have a blog just to keep me, and all their other friends, updated with what is happening in their lives and in that mysterious mind of theirs.  I find that exceedingly interesting since just recently I moved away from many of my closest friends and family members to start life on my own.  Therefore, I really do enjoy finding out what they are up to and what they are thinking about by any means necessary.  Blogging seems like a good thing for that.

I think I am creating this blog to act in a mixture of that, themed and without theme.  What I mean is, right before I left my college to start this next part of my life, one of my professors asked me to really pay attention to what it feels like being out on my own for the first time and starting a new job.  Well, I have been out on my own before, living in the same area I do currently.  But he is right.  This time it is different.  This time I have a degree, and I have a future, and I do not have an exactly known time of returning back to my old life.  Sure, I have already bought tickets to fly home for Christmas... but that time line is not the same as what it was before.  I do not have a set ending date as I did with my internships... I am here.  Here to stay for a long time of that is how all of this plays out.

My professor thought that perhaps if I recorded what it feels like, this life as a recent graduate, making my way, starting a new life, a new job; if I recorded it, perhaps someone can learn something from it.  So that is why I am starting this blog... to write down all these musings as I begin this next part of my life, and hopefully anyone who decides to read it will get something out of it... I have a feeling I will be getting something out of it too.