Set Sail!

As I make a list of all of the things that I need for school this year, and sort through everything I have, and mentally prepare myself for the realization that my summer is almost over, I can't help but remember this time last year. I was a nervous freshman, about to begin my first year away from home. I wasn't sure what the new year was going to bring me. I had nightmares occasionally about getting lost on campus, or showing up late to class: the kinds of nightmares where the scenery around you morphs and twists until you have no idea where you are but you know it isn't where you are supposed to be.

The first year was challenging, but as I met new friends and got into a routine, it became easier. And then I moved back home, and got used to the slow flow of things, only to be propelled once more back into the chaotic mess that is my life at school. Such is life. It seems like whenever I start getting comfortable with one thing, I am thrown headlong into something else. Kind of like I am standing on the plank, and one wrong move will send me tumbling down into the seas.

I won't lie, I'm just as nervous this year as I was for the last. I've never been one of those people who is okay with not knowing what is going to happen, who can just "go with the flow" and know it will all work out. I am more one of those people who has a list for her lists and plans parties and events months ahead of time, becoming frustrated when others cannot morph to my schedule. So I know where my classes are, so I do have friends on campus: I still don't know what I'm doing next summer, I still don't know what internship I will have before I graduate, I still don't know how to get where I'm going and somehow make enough money to eat at the same time. Taking it one day at a time is what is getting me through the beginning of yet another new start.

I did, shockingly, set some goals for myself, to help ease the transition back to school:

Goal #1. Decide if I'm going to add another major. Decide what it is I want out of my future career.

Goal #2. Enjoy as much of my spontaneous, young life as I can, because before I know it, I won't have the chance to go watch shooting starts at 2am on a Tuesday morning. And,

Goal #3. Do my best. It's all I can do.

I think I'm the only person who has to write "have fun" in her planner, or she may forget to do it :)

So begins another year! Another challenge! Another 365 days to "make it or break it"! And I'm ready. My "Imagination" poster and scented candles are lying in wait with me. We are bracing ourselves for the shock of the incoming hurdle into the seas of the unknown. I have a ship made of faith, and God is my Captain, so let's set sail before the high tide of doubt casts us into the beyond!

Godspeed, Me Maties!