Grown up. For real. Sort of.

So here's the deal: I'm way spoiled.

For 19 years, my parents (mostly Mom--Dad is a whole other, equally as important ball game) bought groceries, cooked, did laundry, stayed on top of homework/activities/lives for three children, and managed to have a social life. And now I'm taking care of one and I'm like "THIS IS SO HARD." Grocery shopping, actually making real food, knowing what needs to be refrigerated and when things spoil...food is overwhelming. And then you've got to fill up with gas and go buy your own medicine when you're sick and do annoying grown up stuff. I didn't think I was prepared for this.

But I am. My parents have done an exceptional job of preparing me for the real world. Because I won't call my Coppell house home for much longer. I'll never go back to someone consistently buying and making my food. In a few years, I'll be paying for my own gas and insurance and bills. College is four years of practice before I get pushed out into the world with a diploma and some handy lessons that I picked up.

Yesterday was an excellent example of my growing adultness.

So I have this real weird version of hypothyroidism (translation: my thyroid doesn't work). So when I'm put on new medicine for it, I have to get my blood drawn to make sure it's actually working. I've never done that by myself before. Until yesterday. I got up early, got dressed, and headed to find the College Station Medical Center. I checked myself in (successfully spelling my name wrong at first), filled out my insurance info, and waited until my name was called. They took my blood, I drove to class. I felt like a regular grown up! Weird!

Then, my roommate Myles and I needed to go to Goodwill after class in search of Hawaiian clothes. We got in my car and it struggled to start. I have one of those weird keyless cars that you just push a button for and it just was not working as well as it should. So I was a little concerned but not too much. Then, as we emerged from Goodwill with our purchases and climbed in the car, it just stopped. When I want to start my car, I push the brake all the way down while pushing the button. The brake wasn't going down. But I didn't panic! A shock to both Myles and myself. I called my mom and asked what to do and she just said to call the Nissan place in College Station. So I called them while Myles got ahold of a friend who knew more about cars than we did (thank you Ethan!). The Nissan guy (Johnny) gave me instructions to push the brake as hard as I could (meaning that Ethan pushed it as hard as he could) and--tada! The car started. And I promptly drove it straight to the Nissan place.

Moral of the day: I didn't panic. A year ago, I would've been freaking the heck out. But I wasn't. I've been equipped with the ability now to think clearly and rationally through situations before getting mad, panicking, or something just as unproductive. Growing up might not be so bad.

Shout out to my parents for being awesome, to Myles for sticking with me, to Ethan for temporarily fixing my car, and to Joy for picking us up at the Nissan dealership. My friends and family rock.