Its been about 2 years since I graduated college so I guess I've settled into 'adulthood'. As I approach my 24th birthday tomorrow I've been thinking about a lot of things.

Graduating college was scary. Senior year was one of the best years of my life followed by a summer filled with adventure, friends, joy and memories. Moving from that straight into my parents house where I lived in Northern Virginia suburbia was rough. Couple in a full time accelerated masters degree and a pandemic, I felt like I had lived out all the fun and the rest of my life was meant to be serious. I didn't have many friends left in the area and would end up socializing with my peers maybe once a month. It kind of felt like life was over. This is it?

I'm a huge extrovert and meeting people and interacting with them keeps me going. So moving from a town filled with peers of my age group to suburbia was a brutal shift. Moving into a city from there was really nice, especially having friends to come home to but even still its not the same. I guess life slows down a little? But maybe it isn't so bad.

I guess moving into adulthood is a shift from those short term goals/enjoyments to longer term goals - whether that be financial, physical health or social. Hell, creating and maintaining this website is probably not something I would have been able to do while in college.

Would I recommend living at home for a bit to save up money? Honestly I'm not sure. It would have been nice to go out and start my life. It would have been nice to have been living with people my own age from the beginning. But I guess its also nice to have a little nest egg that will let me take extended leaves from work when I want to pursue grander adventures.

Maybe it was the fact that I came into the real world right before an election, but something in me just got super attached to politics as I started life. I wish I could go back and tell that guy to relax. None of that matters. I guess it might have also been the abundance of free time I had. It's nice to be focusing on other things now I guess.

I was a lot more attached to my career growth at the beginning as well. I've found myself drifting away and pursuing more things outside of work. I always had my creative hobbies before, and definitely stayed on top of cardio and eating semi decently, but its been nice taking that to the next level and coupling in strength training. Ive found that this has moved up my priority list compared to before.

If I could go back two years and give any tips to the guy coming out of school, I'd tell him to move out sooner, take better care of himself mentally and physically before it bites you and not to feel like its all over, its only just beginning.

I guess that's all of the thoughts I have for now. Leave y'all with a quote from this video that describes my thoughts succintly.

"I'm not where I want to be, but thank god I'm not where I was"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGc_Scnm9fw