+and when we find ourselves in the place just right, we will be in the valley of love and delight

"They" say that you go through the most formative change while you are in college. Where you are mentally and emotionally as an entering freshman is so drastically different from where you end up as you make your exit senior year. Sometimes I feel like I'm being ripped out of college instead of naturally leaving. (My choice, I know!) I don't like that time and standards can define us. I know that I am creating my own story and my own journey with every step I take and that no two stories are just alike.

I finally feel like I am understanding that my life is not going to look like someone else's and if someone expects it to, they are mistaken, not me. I read through my journal that I started when I was a freshmen and reading through things really made me smile. I have been immature, stupid, forgetful, dramatic, kind, generous, understanding bitter, in awe, rebellious, a good friend, a bad friend, and so on, and I will continue to be all of these things. Reading it makes it solidify in my mind.

This is not a nostalgic post, but there are 33 days til I graduate and in all reality start a "new phase" of life. At least one that doesn't include undergraduate classes or living in a dorm! I have felt odd and pressured about graduate school, getting a job, getting married, what the implications of doing or not doing these things may look like and all the while trying to figure out what being 22 means. I don't have to know. I have applied to graduate school. I have a job for a semester. I have an apartment for 6-months. I am happily dating Devon and we have talked long and hard about our options. Now it's time to just live each day. A friend of mine recently asked, "When did I start planning life instead of living it?" Great question. Here's to living!