I guess this is growing up

I returned to Oregon eighteen months ago, just in time for Christmas and then to start graduate school a few weeks later. I entered into a whirlwind from which I have had only occasional respite over the ensuing months. I've endured near-constant change. I've had a job, an internship, and a student teaching placement. I have lived six places (if I remember correctly) in Portland, Beaverton, Forest Grove, and Rockaway Beach, on couches, in spare rooms, in apartments, condos, houses. 

In some ways, I feel like the day I arrived in Eugene two Decembers ago surely happened just yesterday, and in other ways it feels that a lifetime has passed. I have had more various and unexpected experiences than I can count. I have learned a lot in the last 18 months, both through formal education and that painful, beautiful thing we call growin' up.

So, in reflection, I wanted to convey a few of those:

* Owning multiple sets of linens does not automatically make you a grown-up.

* In fact, nothing automatically makes you a grown-up. If you have to say, "I'm a grown-up now because ______," then you are probably not a grown-up.

* Sometimes the people who should have your best interests at heart give you really awful advice.

* If something makes you happy, don't question it!

* If something makes you unhappy, get out!

* Just because it's on sale does not mean you have to buy it.

* Just because it's a sunny day and it seems like everybody is drinking beer on the patio of a bar somewhere does not mean that you have to do it too.

* Just because everybody else loves something does not mean you have to love it also.

* Having more things, or more options, does not make you more happy. Similarly, getting rid of all of your things does not necessarily ensure happiness either.

* If you are going to ship all of your belongings across the country, pack your dishes really, really well.

* Everybody has problems, everybody has emotions, everybody has triggers, vices, and coping mechanisms. The real problem is in not acknowledging that we have them.