The Single Digit Countdown
I made it… I made it to my final week of college. At the end of the week they hand me a rolled up piece of paper, while making me wait weeks or months for the real one, to signify that I have reached the end of my journey as a college student.
But what does this all mean? For me I think it means that everything is changing. I’m going to have to move on, get a “big-girl” job, and find out what it actually means to be an adult in the “real world.”
I’m excited about getting a job and not staying up late to finish research papers, but… There’s always a but…. I am not looking forward to change.
When I say change I’m talking about not being around the same people that I have gotten to know through my time in college. I have gotten used to coming to campus just to grab lunch or vent about the latest class assignment I struggled to finish. Now that all is going to change.
In less than a week I will be moving 500 miles, back to my hometown in Southern California. I knew how hard it was to move away two years ago, but it seems even harder to move back now.
Though this whole process I have found that the only way I am going to get through this and any big change in my life, has been to acknowledge each and every emotion I am feeling.
Honestly, when people ask me how I feel about moving home I tell them, “I am excited and terrified, happy and sad, and not ready for the move to happen yet.” I then get the response questioning how it is possible to be all of that at once… I don’t know, but I do know that I am not letting my emotions get the best of me.
There are always going to be point in your life, and mine as well, that we have to deal with something that makes us uncomfortable or makes a feel a certain way. But that’s just it. We are meant to feel these emotions, but not let them become us.
One of my favorite quotes that has helped me through these big moments of change in my life is one by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I was terrified two years ago when I moved away from home for the first time to finish my degree, but I decided to make the best of it. I was startled to find that there was more opportunities than I had time for. On top of that I have met people who are the complete opposites of me, but we have grown to be great friends and supporters of one another.
I will say, despite the constant change and feeling of being unsure of what life holds, I am proud of the life I am living. One thing I do know is if that ever changes, I have the power to start over once again.
Change in life will happen, but we can choose to change it again if it does’t turn out the way we wanted it to.
