Oh and by the way the weather here is wonderful!

Being a perpetual student has its advantages.  

For the last six years, I've been working the poor college student thing.  My apartment is decorated with my older cousins' leftovers, after they began an adult life sponsored by the quintessential Bed Bath & Beyond and Target registries.  I get a discount rate at the movie theatre and work part-time.  I can excuse many shortcomings with a simple, "Oh I'm still in school."  And frankly put, I'm good at school.  I work well within the boundaries of this week's assignment or omgthishugepaper, meeting another's expectations.  Jury’s still out if that’s good or bad.

But that ends in May.  And that scares the crap out of me.  I had plans of coasting through this year with a seamless transition into the professional world because, up until now, everything had been really doable.

In the second year of program I'm in, the classes transition from, "Can you pass this test?" to "Do you have the real-life skills?" while pushing us harder and harder to find weaknesses and fix them.  It's no long about being good at school.  This process has broken me down more times than I can count, but it makes me want to be better more than I could’ve ever imagined.  And I guess that’s life, if you do it right.  Coasting doesn’t get you any where except the same place you’ve been.  If you have everything figured out, you’re either lying to yourself or leading a really boring life.  It’s okay to flounder before you can [try for dear life to] hold your own. 

By my next birthday, I’ll be settling into a new place (and hopefully stay in the same place for more than a year…or buying stock in U-Haul) after travelling Europe with a good friend and struggling to find a new job in a new profession with a new community. 

And all that is scary.  But scary is good.  Asking for help is good.  Diving into the unknown is good.  Struggle is good.  It will be okay.  It will be okay.