I was never in a rush to move out of my house. In fact, I was pretty happy there for a large percentage of my life. I got along (most days) with both of my parents and my brother, and there were never any major "blowups." Well, I guess I really mean that there weren't any as soon as I graduated high school...

As all of my friends got married (living in Utah is seriously something else) and I began chipping away (slowly) at my bachelors degree, I realized that in order to truly get "more" out of going to school I needed to live closer to campus.

Seriously, you are so excited about taking the UTA train for free (thank you, student ID) that you forget how truly awful it is to sit on a train for an hour both directions. Those who say they study effectively on the train are definitely lying to you. It was time to move to a better location. And so I did.

It definitely wasn't an overnight decision, and it definitely wasn't one without a huge chunk of thought behind it. I was moving out! I was leaving behind my childhood home, a full refrigerator (thanks, Mom), and free Wifi (they also don't tell you how expensive it is for this basic luxury. What a rude awakening...) I was headed out on my own, and ready to take on the world.

I spent a week prior to my move peeling stickers and photos off my walls (sixteen-year-old me thought it would be a swell idea to glue these to my bedroom wall) and I spent even more time packing up every memory I had made since I moved into that home in 2002.

As emotional as that experience should have been, I was too excited about my new adventure to really process what was going on. Over the week, I discovered that my boyfriend is a bottomless pit, and buying groceries is a serious expense. But hey, we've gotta eat, right? I felt like a true adult when I was more excited to purchase a new lamp than I was to celebrate my birthday. Growing up sure is tough.

We've been here for two weeks, and the newness is beginning to wear off, and the realness of being on our own has truly set in. Like, where is my Mom to make sure that we have stomach medicine and Q-Tips?! I literally had no idea where to find the Q-Tips as I was walking through Target, and I certainly never realized that they cost TWENTY-ONE DOLLARS. Everything was always right where I needed it when i lived at home.

A few days later, I definitely had a meltdown when I discovered that we don't own a can opener yet, and that means that the blueberry muffins I was planning on making are a definite no-go. But then it really set in when my parents came to visit me for my birthday. I hadn't seen them in weeks, and it hit me harder than ever when I saw them walk through my front door.

You see, there are definitely some things they don't tell you about moving out for the first time. They don't tell you that you that it is incredibly expensive to furnish an apartment, they also don't tell you how terrible it is to literally have NOTHING in your kitchen cabinets. We have four dinner plates, what up? They also don't tell you that the body-numbing homesickness DOES set in, and they definitely don't tell you that you can get through it no matter what. Because you can! Here's to new adventures, homesickness, and meltdowns over can-openers.