meanwhile, back in the country's middle...

This summer I enjoyed the particularly intriguing taste of transition to adulthood. I got my own job, paid my own rent, planned a few camping trips on the weekends, and kept myself alive and healthy. Of course, I was far from being completely independent, but it was a big step. I worked 44-60 hours a week at two separate jobs, and spent 10-12 hours each week at the track or in the weight room. The three summer months dragged along, slowed by a job with few qualifications but somewhat redeemed by a paycheck of a gratifying size. However, those three humid months are over at last, and my last few days have been a sweaty blizzard of college tasks.

I learned, this past weekend, that moving two blocks away is just as much work as moving two states away. Fortunately, I have a man with a strong back, a reliable car, and an enduring servant's heart, so the moving process only took about three hours. However, between RA retreats, seminars, and obligations, it took me three days to unpack and settle into my new apartment. I've not quite completed the finishing touches, but today I unpacked the last box, tidied, and managed to make my living space a bit more habitable. My previously bare walls now have the beginnings of a wardrobe. In one corner, above my desk, are some refreshing cutouts from a magazine about the Pacific Northwest:


On the wall above my bed is a photo collage of the people and places dearest to my heart:


And on the doors of every apartment on my floor are my afternoon and evening's work--name labels in tasteful hippie designs (complete with hemp bows!):




As the fall athletes move in tomorrow morning, as three-a-day volleyball practices kick off with the ferocious timed mile, as new students arrive and are ushered through orientation, and as my last year of undergrad classes begin, I fall back into my familiar student's routine. I take comfort in the fact that I'm not graduating yet, and I won't be rushed into full adult responsibilities until spring. Not yet, mom. Nine more months before I really do need to be an adult. Nine more months...