Moving Out/Growing Up

For those of me who know me somewhat-well, you all know that I have had a crazy home life. My family is extremely dysfunctional, and I've always been excited at the fact of moving.

Except, now that time has come for me to move. I took the first semester of school off while I stayed at home to make some money for school, and I will be attending school for 2nd semester, which starts in a few days on the 10th. I'll be moving up tomorrow morning. The thing that I find the most odd, though, is that I'm actually very hesitant to move. The whole idea of growing up just sucks. Bad. Sure, moving out has it's pros and cons, but all I've been able to focus on the past few days while packing is the cons. This past week, I've been with a lot of people I'll never see again, or if I do, it'll be years down the road. It's been hard as hell trying to make time for everyone, and some people I've made more of a priority to be with than others...But still, overall, it's a very odd feeling knowing that you're about to embark into real life on your own.

Some nice things about it, though, is that I, along with everyone else, gets a fresh start. Nobody really knows you, you don't really know anybody else. You make friends, you make enemies, you enjoy life, you hate life. You get the best of both worlds (Dammit. There I go. I have that song stuck in my head. Pineapple you, Miley Cyrus).

But mostly what I've been focusing on, is the loss of a lot of my friends. Some of my best friends I'm leaving behind. I mean, I've put effort into our friendships, but sometimes I really don't feel that they have put in quite that much effort. Some of my friends that I've been with this week have been either really emotional (Embracing, kissing, crying ) since I'm leaving, knowing they won't see me for quite some time again, and others have been...not so emotional (as in a fist bump, hug, high five, etc). It's quite...awe inspiring, all of these mixed feelings that have been going on.

On the topic of growing up, it stinks. I mean, for the past several years I have told myself "I will study psychology!". But the past few days, I've been truly thinking "Do I really like it that much to do it for the rest of my life?", and then I try to ponder what other things that I could do, but none appeal to me. I mean, this is a crucial time in any person's life to figure out what he or she wants to do with their lives. Then after this step, it's getting a job, or getting married, having a family, working, growing old...I mean, there seems to be an absence of fun in this equation. I've come to realize something about fun...When you're a child/teenager, "fun" comes quite easily to you (through toys, video games, friends, etc), and then when you're an adult, you need to make your fun. I mean, lets face it, you won't get as much joy from a Captain Planet doll as you did when you were a kid. Growing up is just flat out scary - the rest of your life depends on it!

And that's just about it. I've just been contemplative the past few days as I've been packing up my things, ready to embark on the journey of life.

But what have been some of your thoughts and feelings about moving out and growing up? What were some of your biggest regrets and fears? Your greatest accomplishments and failures...EDUCATE ME IN LIFE LESSONS, SOUTHPERRY.

ohayKevin.

Moving out is quite different.. It's new. It's weird. It's different. Now more than ever you're totally independent. Some people take it in stride while others hardly take it at all. But one thing is for sure that it takes a solid plan to begin a new journey in your life. For me, moving out was easy. I wanted to get out, move on to school at Virginia Tech, and leave all the problems I had behind. For me, it all worked out well. I made many new friends at school, all of whom I Skype daily. Can't say that about the people knew in high school. Being totally independent has really helped me discover who I truly am. Kevin: 19, gay, loves to live life to it's fullest. At 19, I can tell where I want my life to lead me. A dual-diploma in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Virginia Tech to then move on to get my PharmD at UPitt or Temple. I've figured everything out after a single semester in college. So far, everything has worked out accordingly to how I need to achieve the goals I want to achieve. In terms of schooling, I love Chemistry. It has always been a passion of mine ever since I took AP Chemistry back in high school. I totally see myself using it every single day either as a Chemist or a Pharmacist if I choose to go that route after I graduate.

But it is also very difficult. Money is always an issue. College students: stereotyped for hardly scraping by with ramen for every meal. Granted, that isn't entirely true, but it puts it into perspective. And even moreso, money is an issue if you choose to live off campus like I hope to next year. I've been saving up for a while. I've hardly spent any of my apartment money. I think it's around $9,000 now.

But really, the best advice is to go for it. See what works for you. Learn from your mistakes. And have fun with it.

If your honestly considering moving out there's only 2 things you need to be concerned with:
A. Wear are you going to live?
B. How you're going to pay for anything?

TBH nearly ANY job will do... you won't live in luxury mind you, but just about any job can make rent money.

If you're serious I'd say tuff it out (live with your parents, don't buy ANYTHING if it isn't necessary) for at least a year and gather around 8-10k in savings.

Look at some listings (apartments obviously).

Even though your family may not be the best, if there's anything any one of them can do (even a cousin twice removed) to help... ASK THEM!

You honestly may have to shut yourself off and just work for a year... set some of the money you earn aside for anything personal (tuition for a community college) and some for rent.

Once a semester I spend one to two weeks panicking about life's continuous march. Then I get busy with stuff to do and I move on. It happens to most of us. I focused on the cons a lot before I moved out to start freshman year, but then I got there and kinda went "PROS! PROS EVERYWHERE!!!" Life has been a continual improvement since 7th grade.

Disjointed thought text wall:
I've lived in the dorms for the whole of my college experience so far (3 semesters to go) and it's a great middle-ground between your home and truly being on your own. Doubly true if your floor has outgoing people and you don't have to do any work to meet them and your cafeteria doesn't suck. I'm running some of the "Oh god, truly moving out jitters" since I need to find an apartment for my internship in Cleveland this summer, (anyone know anyone in need of a roommate?) but I imagine I'll cope and adjust when the time comes, just like I've done before. Humans are pretty good at that. I have a remarkable amount of free time. I work 10 hours a week and 10 hours every other weekend (at a sweet job in the cafeteria, where I've met pretty much all my friends) and don't have a crazy rigorous class schedule- although Engineering isn't the easiest thing ever- 12 to 15 credit-hours/semester. I find that some days, especially weekends I don't work, I'm able to get so little done in a day I sort of amaze myself. Fun isn't dead, but yeah, you need to make it for yourself a little, but with the new time, resources, and freedoms... it's pretty easy to do. I recommend exploration through exercise when the weather allows. I bike a lot. It's good. I'm a substantially healthier person now that I'm out on my own. It didn't even take much effort, the change of scenery and not being around people who are used to me acting like a fatty made it pretty easy. I've had second thoughts about my no-looking-back dive into Electrical Engineering. I enjoy the classes and the labs and enough of the subject matter, it can just be hard to shake the feeling that there's something better out there. I don't have any great advice on that. Because there might be something better. But I'm young, and I'm happy enough. So that will do for now.

I haven't had an appreciable problem with cash. Most of my expenses get put off into loan form by living in the dorms. Then again, I don't splurge on delivery and booze, and I pirate a fair amount, so that keeps expenses down. Benefit of going into engineering is that the loans don't really scare me.

One regret: I didn't even try for an internship last year. My general fears about the future mostly involve the total collapse of society and my unpreparedness for that scenario... so totally irrelevant to the issue at hand.

My greatest achievement so far is that I've gotten very comfortable with how I live my life. To sort of paraphrase it into encouragement/advice: Relax. You'll be fine. You'll adjust more readily than you think. Just stay flexible, roll with the punches, and never forget about common sense.

Yeah I'm scared.

Are you dorming somewhere or really moving out on your own at your own apartment? There's a difference F3.

Yeah I'm scared.

Are you dorming somewhere or really moving out on your own at your own apartment? There's a difference F3.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that I'm in the dorms. I'm in the newly built dorms, so they're pretty freaking nice. I'm romming with 5 other people. 3 bedrooms, 2 to a room, and 2 full bathrooms, along with a kitchen and HUGE living area. So I'm not too worried about dorm life. A lot of my friends I somewhat associated with in high school are living in the same building as me, so I'll see them around a lot. Only thing that sucks about dorms: Even though it's on campus housing, it's further away than most off-campus housing. The cafeteria is on the direct oppisite side of campus. So it's about a 2 mile walk I believe it is. Which I won't be making on a regular basis, especially since it's going to be anywhere from 0-10 degrees F for the next few months...I'll only stop by there on T/W/TH when I have a class nearby around a meal time...haha

I'm romming with 5 other people. 3 bedrooms, 2 to a room, and 2 full bathrooms, along with a kitchen and HUGE living area.

:f6: Daaaamn. You're gonna have a riot.