Life's Too Good :)

I saved this topic to protect myself from being intruded on at unreasonable hours by intruders as well as friends who are only there when they find that you have a place available to party all night. (Not exactly my thing.) My parents have been on vacation for the past three weeks, and tonight they are finally coming home! :)

For the first three days I missed them like crazy. Coming back to an empty house after work and having noone there to talk to killed. There I was, left all by myself (not counting cat), in a four bedroom house full of responsibilities and weird creeping creatures that imagination creates when it's dark and quiet.

But to my utter amazement, I adjusted to living by myself very fast. House chores don't really feel like chores when you're doing them for yourself and on your own time. And loneliness is quickly gone once you find something to occupy your mind, which has never been a problem for me. I'm an only child, so I never depended on other people to entertain me. I cooked up a storm -- including a steak and lobster dinner, which I didn't have to share with ANYONE(Only child trait coming through!), and four cakes in twenty-four hours! And I enjoyed every second of it on an empty kitchen with nobody telling me how to do things better. (You think I'm talking about mom? Guess again! Yes, she does it, but dad has developed a habit too lately. Never mind that he's been MIA from the kitchen for the entire duration of my life! :)

The experience of living on my own was entirely different from when I moved to college five years ago. I didn't last back then. Maybe I grew up a little slower than the rest of my generation, but I've heard from others too that it took them about three months to stop missing home. I honestly don't think kids are emotionally ready to move out at 18. I definitely wasn't. And I haven't seriously entertained the thought until this year, and only because my commute was so tedious. I was still anxious though that I would miss home and waste money on rent while going back every day, like I did in college.

But I guess growing up creeps up unexpectedly and one day you just realize that you are an adult. That's what happened to me over the past couple weeks. I realized that I'll be more than fine on my own. That I love talking to my parents, but I'm not dependent on them (or anyone else) emotionally anymore. It's an empowering and liberating feeling. It's as if God knew the right timing for me. Because a week ago I started looking for apartments again after a month break of searching and finding nothing. I fell in love with the first place I went to see. And I got it. So now I'm officially a resident of Seattle, WA, 98103!!!

Sunset from the window of my place (taken by previous tenant).