Once I was 18 years old…

First I would like to thank GOD for letting me live this long and I hope I live for many more years. Knock on wood but if you’re Italian please touch iron for me.

Okay, I would like to use this time to say that I learned absolutely nothing! Just kidding you just got PRANKED. Obviously, I haven’t matured very much my sense of humor is still the same as when I was in Junior high. Some things never change. Okay, I’ll get serious now.

The first thing I did as an 18-year old was get my very own library account. I, unfortunately, do not qualify to be under the same account as my mom anymore. That kinda hurt but you know as Kurtis Conner once said, “That’s just how the horse gallops sometimes”. Also, I started to vote!

In the fall. I began to volunteer for an afterschool club. At the time I didn’t have a job and because of my wacky school schedule so I ended up having random chunks of time on my hands after class. I thought that I might as well do something besides school. So that night I literally googled “volunteer opportunities near me” and found this really cool non-profit. I helped out with homework and activities with elementary school students from Kindergarten to 6th grade. The kids were so funny and inspirational. I loved my time volunteering. You’d think that volunteering with kids that I would be the one to change them and make them a “better” person but in reality, the kids changed me! SO cliché but true. They reminded me of the little things in life. I had to stop volunteering though because I got a job. I literally cried on my last day. Nevertheless, volunteering was one of my best decisions since turning 18. I highly recommend volunteering when or if you have spare time. It makes a difference and you feel good.

I learned that I can also legally go to jail. So it is important to be a good citizen of society. I mean, it is important to be a good person all your life but you should probably think twice when you turn 18.

Also, I can work as much as I want. I can’t make work excuses anymore sadly.

Honestly I haven’t done anything major besides getting my own library account lol. Life is pretty much the same. I know it isn’t the same for other 18-year-olds though. Many of my friends moved out for the first time in their lives for college. Others decided to serve a mission for their church and are living in the coolest places. Some work full-time, some are engaged/married and some are just going with the flow.

As for me, I started college. Very quickly I decided that I didn’t want to study nursing anymore. I felt a little lost for a moment in my life. For the longest time, I wanted to become a nurse. In high school, I literally told everyone that I wanted to be a nurse. Whoops. Oh well, what can you do? I had a very detailed plan for how I was going to go about it. I even wrote a blog about it! Everything was so solid but it didn’t feel right anymore. God had other plans for me.

The Yiddish proverb “We plan, God laughs” had never felt so true. Thanks be to God I was able to slowly rebuilt a new plan from scratch. It was hard I’m not going to lie. I really had to think about what truly interested me and what made me happy. During this moment of my life, I was so bitter and mad at everything. Everything felt so unfair and I felt that God had abandoned me. The worst feeling though was the bitterness, I hated feeling that way, I couldn’t help but want to feel that way all day every day. It was weird because obviously feeling bitter did not magically make me feel better. It was definitely a lose-lose situation. Being mad at the world and myself was an incredibly exhausting thing to do. Useless too. I don’t recommend it. One day I decided that enough was enough, and started to become grateful for what I had and began to put in work. Even if I wasn’t ‘feeling like it’. Fake it till you make it guys. Anyway, shout out to Kobe Bryant for the mamba mentality. Honestly, when times get tough you just have to push through it. If you work hard you’ll (most likely) be okay.

I eventually decided to take a chance again and pick another major that interested me. I don’t want to say it on my blog just in case I change it again haha. This major is different than the nursing one that’s for sure. BUT if you really want to know what my new major is feel free to ask me.

My most difficult essay of the year.

Anyway, so far I had to write a difficult essay on the birth of philosophy. Luckily I had a really good professor who knew what he was doing so I had all the information on the philosophers that I needed. This essay made me feel very dumb and smart at the same time. Weird.

Also, I started taking my religion more seriously. I decided that is was important to continue practicing it since I am, according to the law, an adult now. And I do occasionally stop by the Knights of Columbus to buy a donut after Mass too.

As of now, I have decided to live day by day. Little by little. I feel so much better. It is okay to not have everything figured out.

I also got a new job!

I made the mistake of telling a kid that I have eaten rabbit (respectfully) before. The reaction was pretty funny.

A playdough sculpture of me. I am flattered.

So my new job is similar to what I did as a volunteer except I am the one running the activities. I have more responsibility, more fun, and more independence. To be completely honest, even though I absolutely adore this job and I love what it does for the community, it has been the hardest job I’ve ever had. I started to pray rosaries every day before I went to work just to get through the day. Despite the fact of it being the most difficult job, it has been the most rewarding job I have ever had in my life and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. As months fly by, it definitely has gotten better. It’s taken a lot of patience for myself, rosaries, planning, and forgiveness to have made it this far. My absolute favorite part is getting to know the kids and working with them. I’m pretty sure I laugh every day because of them.

Just your regular spelling homework.

Oh yeah, I finished my first year of college. That went by fast. It was a learning experience that’s for sure. I surprisingly don’t have much to say about it lol. I still really like going to school.

Here is a recent picture of me after my first day of working at a full-time job.

I probably won’t travel overseas until I graduate from college and I am okay with that. I need to learn how to make boondoggle for future activities and how to read kid books upside down to children.

Alright, I turn 19 soon and I now feel that I need to chill with my nerves. I shouldn’t take life too seriously. I need to make a joke now and then and not be afraid to make new friends once in a while.

The Friday before my birthday I threw a small get together party with some of my close friends. We ate Costco pizza, drank coke and took Polaroid photos. Most importantly though, we caught up.

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