Although I’m sure that I’m not the only one this applies to, It hasn’t been the smoothest transition from “late teens” to now “mid twenties” for me.
Most of this awkward transition is the result of events seemingly taking place way too slowly and far too quickly at the same time. At age 17, those four years of college seemed like it was going to stretch on forever. At age 24, I’m now two years removed from all forms of schooling. I remember when I was just getting by with my weekend job, barely making my credit card payments, trying to find a job so I can make more money and get everything back on track and now here I am, about two weeks away from being at my current job for a year and a lot of things have adjusted for the better. This is probably the first year that I’ve actually checked off most of the things on my list of New Year’s Resolutions.
Make no mistake, this past year at my job I’ve been working myself like crazy in order to get a lot my financial goals accomplished, even pushing myself to the point of almost physically breaking down from exhaustion on at least two separate incidents… With that being said, it’s far past time for a vacation.
And with THAT being said, I’m out to ATL (Atlanta, Georgia) next week for a few days, to completely relax.. Hopefully, at least.
Growing up, I never really appreciated a vacation as much as I have in these recent years. Of course you look at vacation as an opportunity to travel, especially as a kid, but you never really appreciate the full scope of what it can potentially bring until you’re older.
I’m looking forward to this vacation as an opportunity to legitimately try and relax, maybe even fully unplug myself from my day to day stresses and enjoy life. (Isn’t that what we all want out of a vacation?) It was to the point that I didn’t even want to take one because I still had bills that needed to be paid.
It wasn’t until a fairly recent conversation with my uncle that I realized that my current style of thinking was holding me back. He told me, “The bills will always be there.” Simple words sure, but not any less truthful.
The way I’d been operating these past six months, it was almost a mentality of “I’ll take a break after I take care of this one last bill” or “I just have to buy this one last thing that I need and then I can take it easy” and the reality is that all of that is simply not true. A few months back, I celebrated finally being credit card debt free, of not having to find ways to pay back increasing interest on top of money that I already owed, and what did I do? Immediately dove headfirst into taking care of some long overdue doctor’s checkups (which of course came with doctor’s bills…) which would only put me into repeating the same thought cycle again, just at a smaller scale.
Got to give myself a pat on the back for making responsible decisions right?
Credit is due to both of my parents for instilling a sense of financial and general responsibility within me. A responsibility that, I admit, I can take to the extreme at times. So here’s hoping that my 2nd journey to the Peach State allows for more of an actual vacation than it did the first time. (First time was cool, but I ended up in the hospital… which is a story for another time) Here’s to happiness 🙂
