Exciting lessons in being an adult.

It's odd how much your priorities change from educational institution to educational institution- sometimes it makes you laugh to look back and see what you worried about months or years ago.
But at the time they were important and relevant.

Graduating from college and moving onto a fulltime job was really odd. There was a disconnect that noone really prepared us for. They prepared us for a very sickly workforce, but they didn't prepare us for the adjustment.
Time adjustment, friend adjustment, priority adjustment.

No longer do you pull all-nighters and stay up worrying about homework. No more afternoon naps. You're working! :D This brings all the joys and responsibilities of not being a student anymore.

Positives: No more homework that stops you from going to nighttime activities. Money.
Stability of a kind, and (hopefully for you too) work satisfaction and fulfillment.

Negatives:  No afternoon naps. No staying up all night because you want to. Bills.

So really, the positives are independence, financial and otherwise. You just have to sacrifice your willynilly sleep schedule (like mine :P). It's funny how things that take up your segments of time start to separate you from college friends. Your priorities and time commitments are different; yours are set and known, theirs are more fuzzy and spread. Its hard to explain, but you fall out of the college mode really quickly.

Change always seems a little daunting, scary and unknown. But never let it stop you from exploring beyond your knowns. You risk losing the happiness you have now, true. But you also risk losing whatever dissatisfaction you have too. Maybe there's a bite of adventure you want to satisfy.
Don't let your fear smother that.

There is something very exciting about being independant. I thought grocery shopping and doing washing and cleaning my apartment would be terribly monotonous. But at least for now it is a thrill. Every one a reminder that though I have the full support of my family, I can do stuff on my own.
I can support myself. And there's something really empowering about that. It's hard to put into words.
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I was recently taken by a 20 second intro to the song 'Counting Stars' by One Republic. The voice performance is clear, crisp, honest and moving. I don't know about other people, but my Disney childhood has plagued me with envisioning anthropomorphized animals when I hear a song I really like. But anyway, I decided to rough-out what I saw in my head, and this is the result.

Hope everyone's having a fun, or at least passable Fall/Autumn :D