Well, it happened.

I have graduated from college. While the actual day of graduation was stressful and frustrating, I did indeed walk across a stage and receive my degree (sort of). I'm still waiting for my actual diploma, but such is life. I do indeed have a degree, just not the paper that it's printed on.

I am living at home. I unpacked, sorted through, and have gotten rid of most of the stuff I owned. Clothes that I never wore and items from my childhood that I do not need are sitting in bags in my living room, creating obstacles for my blind dog to trip over. My room is surprisingly bare, and the once busy walls are now painted a soothing tan. I miss my old beach theme, but this room will last until my parents move out, whether I am sleeping in it or guests are.

Drum corps starts in a little over a week, and while excited, I'm apprehensive as well. I just hope my joints can hold up. It's my age out, and I want so badly to participate fully this summer. If my knees make it this one last season, I promise I will go easy on them in the future.

It has not totally sunk in that this fall, for the first time in 17 years, I will not be going to school. Hopefully, I will have some sort of job, even if it's not a career. But I will not be forced to read things I do not want to, nor will I have to deeply analyze what I read. It seems crazy, that all of a sudden I have so much free time and no academic obligations. I have a feeling that my sense of "grown up-ness" will sink in much more in August than it is right now.