It's been just about a month and a half since I graduated from college and in that time I've felt like there has been this enormous shift in the way I percieve where I'm at in my life. In this month and a half I've seen three friends get married. One to her military husband who is just shipping out for a year, one to a guy she only met 4 months ago but swears that it was meant to be, and one to her high school sweetheart. I've also seen the birth of a baby boy to two people I knew back in high school (they were married last year). All of these milestones- these life changing events- have really lead me to consider where I'm at- Mentally. Emotionally. Physically.
Metephorically?
Literally?
(Maybe... I don't know.)-
on this linear timeline that is my life.
I see people around me making these major life choices and I can't help but think that it's all insane. Absolutely loony. You have your whole life to do these things (or roughly until your 40s if you want to get technical on the kids thing) but you're only young now. Or maybe I'm the insane one. Maybe I should be ready for all of this too. Of course I want to do these things eventually. (In fact, I've become much more agreeable to the idea of marriage in this small chunk of time.) But not now. Not while I'm so young.
Now, I want to travel. I want to go half way across the world to see and experience a culture that is nothing like my own. I want to go to Costa Rica and learn how to surf and re-introduce myself to the Spanish language. I want to wander down roads in Europe somewhere. I want to go camping in the Grand Canyon and stay up to watch the sunrise because I'm sure there is nothing comparable to the moment the sun peaks over the plateaus.
And I want to live a little recklessly (just a little). I want to try sky diving. I want to know what it's really like to budget and making sure the rent gets paid on time. I want to decide that I'd like a change of scenery, pick up and then move to another place. I want to go out one night, stay out late, have too much to drink and then have to wake up and go into work the next morning. I want to make mistakes and then I want to learn from them.
And I want to continue learning. Go to grad school. Find a job that makes me feel good about what I'm doing. Continue evolving. Sell a painting simply because someone liked what I painted. Read. I want to read a lot.
I have a lot of plans ahead of me.
