Thoughts: I am living on my own

The last book I read was about different thinking techniques and how one way to use and strengthen the R-Mode part of my brain was to just write. It said a blog was a good way to do this. before my blog has been entirely about informing people of what I'm up to. I will start mixing in with those updates my thoughts blog posts. they will be about all kinds of topics and I will just put my thoughts on that topic. Maybe it will get you thinking too. this is my first one. It came to me as I was making my lunch...


I’m living on my own... I’m at that point in life where I am actually living away from home. I have paid for my summer housing. I pay for all of my food. I pay for all of my expenses this summer. While I’m sure there are a lot of things that I still get through my mom, such as insurance, or from others, such as the money my grandparents give me when I go home (Thanks), I am at a point in my life that is really odd to think about. I say this realizing that there are still a bunch of more steps until I am truly living on my own but I also feel like this is a pretty big step in life. My whole life, all 20 years of it, has been a journey just like anyone else’s. But it has never felt to me like I have made big steps; Getting my license, graduating high school, getting accepted to college, being in a dorm at college all felt like they were just the next step in life. People would always ask if it felt odd or what did I think about it. I never thought it felt odd and I always just felt like it was the next step. I was going with the flow of life and these were the steps that came next. These decisions were not hard ones. They didn’t require much thinking. I guess it was because they were something you knew was going to happen your whole life. As a kid you know you will drive eventually, you know you will graduate high school and go to college (or at least I did. I had the great support of my family to let me know that I was going to exceed in life by going to college. This is a luxury that not everyone gets.) But I never really thought about getting away from home that much. I didn’t mind living at home. I know many people who left home as soon as they could because they couldn’t stand it there; they had to just get away. But because this is not something I thought about. This like all the others was going to happen eventually, I knew this. But I always thought it would come after college. But here I am, summer between sophomore year and junior year and I’m living on my own. This is two years earlier than I expected. Every now and then I just realize where I am in life and I’m kinda reflective on the truth. It makes me think of what’s coming next. I have a feeling that graduating college will seem like just another moment in life. But the hunt for a job, that will feel odd. The reason I am living on my own is because I know that the more experience I get in my field the better off I’ll be after college.

When I first sat down to write this I was reminded of a conversation I had with a girl from the United Arab Emirate (if you don’t know where that is look it up). She was a College Student. She had mentioned how we all (as in Americans) move away from home very quickly. We don’t stay with our families like people do in her region. In their culture they stay with their families until they are married. That is when they move out. We on the other hand tend to stay with our families until we get a job and can support ourselves. It is at that point that you move out. This caught me by surprise. I had never thought about this concept before. Our culture is so independent and as a group we take pride in our individualism. I had never even thought about living at home after school. If you think about it as a kid you are home until you are done with your education then you move out. And from what it seems to me, as a parent you know your children will move out after school. This is just something that we all know will happen. Have you ever thought about doing this differently?

Living away from home and on your own is something that we all do eventually. I’ve known that my whole life. I just didn’t know eventually would be so soon.

Can you remember when you first moved away from home? What did it feel like? Where did you live? What prompted this move? How old where you? Take some time to reflect on these questions. Feel free to post your answers or thoughts here.