(Trying to) Be An Adult

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am not the most organized, most responsible person, or the biggest planner. Most people would honestly say I’m the opposite of those things. I like spontaneity, I like surprises, I like adventures. These things don’t usually coincide with being good at adulting! I’m probably the least qualified to be an actual adult. 

I like to live life in the moments and not really worry too much about what will happen next. I have a mindset that life will happen and we will figure it out once it does. While this isn’t necessarily a bad way to live life, it doesn’t work super well when you’re attempting to move across the country, to a place you’ve only spent 4 days in, experience real winter for the first time (I’ve lived in Florida and Louisiana my whole life), without a “real” job lined up, with no more than a couple thousand dollars in the bank. 

Now I’m a recent college graduate who’s never made more than $11 an hour, so $2,375.86 honestly sounds like a good chunk of money to me. However, I’ve been corrected by about every real adult that I know that two thousand dollars really isn’t much and money runs out very quick. Especially when you want to move to a place that is known as being very expensive. 

My goal right now is to move to Denver. I know, basically every other person in the country wants to move to Denver also, so I’m definitely not the minority right now. There’s just something about the Midwest that’s really drawing me in. I think it’s the fact that there’s adventure around basically every corner, and everyone there seems like they are trying to live life to the absolute fullest!

The way that I like to live life, I would have loved to have just packed up my car one day, and driven literally anywhere and started there fresh. Like I said before, I like to live life and figure it out as it comes. However, my reasonably minded family was able to talk some sense into me, and helped me to realize that it would not be the best idea to go with literally no plan in mind, no job lined up, and attempt to live in my car until I found a place (mind you, it’s the dead of winter in Colorado right now). 

While I do love spontaneous and adventurous trips, I do like to be somewhat reasonable about them. I’m still living at home, working at a coffee shop and saving every penny I make, and trying to plan out this move that I want to embark on. I spend lots of my free time looking for apartments on Craigslist, jobs on Indeed, and figuring out if Denver is going to be a good move for me in the future. 

As much as I would have wanted to just get up and go as soon as I got the urge, I am realizing now, it is good to at least sort of be an adult about things. Just because moving to Denver isn’t the most spontaneous trip I’ve ever been on doesn’t mean it’s not going to be an adventure. We all make our own adventures and we do them in the way that is most comfortable for us. There are some people who just follow every urge that enters their heart and live every second of their life spontaneously; and then there’s the other side of the spectrum where some people won’t take a step out of their house until every second of their entire day is planned out. These aren’t bad ways to live, it’s just a reminder of the beautiful ways that we were designed with individuality.

If you’re in this same mindset of wanting to get up and go somewhere new and start a new adventure in your life, but you’re kind of hesitating about it, maybe take what I’m saying to heart. I wanted to go so bad as soon as the desire entered my heart, but staying and figuring life out a little more ended up being a really good thing for me. I was able to save up more than anticipated (who doesn’t like a little extra money?), I was able to have slightly more of a plan than I originally had (since I literally started off with no plan at all!), and I was able to grow a lot mentally and emotionally.  

Not giving into every single desire your heart feels and putting a little more time and thought into what you want can really help you to learn more about yourself. I discovered that the reason I had the urge to leave so bad was because subconsciously I was running away from some baggage from my past at home. Taking the time to really reflect and pray about why these desires were so strong, I was able to discover that and I was able to face the things holding me back and move past them. 

I’m currently still living at home. Going on month four when I was only planning on being home for a month. But since I’ve been at home, I’ve made new friends here and gone on a few spontaneous trips! I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I would have just picked up and gone to Colorado on a whim. Now, I have a job lined up in Denver in June and until then, I’m planning on spending time with my family at home and saving up for a few more spontaneous trips (hopefully to Romania! Stay tuned!). 

No matter what state of life you’re in, my advice to you would be to just follow your desires and make them work in ways that work for you personally. If you want to embark on a crazy adventure, then DO IT! Don’t wait for adventures to happen to you, make them happen! Sometimes, though, a little planning does go a very long way and can help your trip be that much more incredible! No matter what your comfort zone is, you can bring adventure into your life. 

Do you enjoy reading about all my travels and adventures? Would you like to help my adventures continue by supporting me financially? If you do, then please know, that would mean the world to me! To do this, you can go to my Patreon page to choose which level you would like to support me at! Thanks for your love and support and remember to make every day an adventure!

Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? Luke 14:31

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