On the Road to Adulthood... wait... am I already there?

Several things have happened (or are going to happen) this month that make me feel slightly old, more adult, and perhaps a bit independent. Last week I got the title for my car. It took me 11 months to pay it off but now I am the proud owner of a 1998 Nissan Maxima which has 17,000 more miles on it then when I purchased it and has required about $1,000 of repairs, not counting maintenance. I don't know how people can feel happy about getting their title if they take the whole 3 years to pay it off. By the time you own the car you've half killed it. Kinda depressing. I suppose now that I own a car my net worth has at least doubled, at least the credit card company thinks so, they've doubled the limit on my credit card.

I also got a couple refund checks from my car which has topped off my savings account at $1,000, my goal for the year. I dreamed of having that much money at one time for years, so now I do. And what am I going to do with it? Let it sit in the bank where it belongs. That's what savings accounts are for aren't they? Some of that money came from graduation money from my AS degree, some from the sale of my little blue car, some from cleaning houses, some from working. It's an accumulation of some of the most precious things to me and a lot of hard work and big decisions.

Last weekend we girls celebrated Christmas. It was wonderful to have Lindsey down and Tara and Carrie with me. We are going to be together so seldom now. It hit me today that Tara is really leaving. It's worse than Lindsey leaving, she's leaving the country for an entire year and when she comes back she'll probably stay on the west coast. For all practical purposes I think that is another country. ;-) We are all growing up and taking different paths. We knew it would happen one day but it's still shocking when it happens. Maybe I'm just delaying it by staying in my nice little Collegedale haven. But anyway, back to Christmas. I got a set of Corelle dishes from the girls, ones I asked for. It struck me when I opened them that they will probably be the ones I have for the next 20-30 years. They are the ones my kids will look at and think of home like I do about my mom's dishes. How sobering.

And finally, next week I graduate... again... Not as exciting as the last time but I guess a four-year degree is more of the benchmark of entering adulthood. I don't know how this BSN will change my life, but I'm certainly glad it's over with. As far as I'm concerned it really has been a lot of BS...