hungrymoonlady3

Growing pains are considered to represent a lot of things: it’s a pretty popular television program, a song by the artist La Roux, the physical sensation of muscle or tissue development and lastly, the life lessons we learn throughout our life. This last example is the type of growing pains I’ve been experiencing and a doctor, or every season of Growing Pains on Blu-ray won’t help. Looking back I feel like I was thrown to the wolves after graduation in May of 2010. When neither of your parents attended college and you’re a little nervous yourself the picture starts to look a little shady. On top of discovering how to: manage my time, feed myself, pay for my expenses, and look for healthcare; I was trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. It was all up to me. No one behind me making my choices for me. At first this was very challenging and I wished for the greener grass on the other side; parents who had dreams for me, parents that paved the way to my bachelor’s degree as long as I walked their tight-rope. That was what I was seeing in my peers lives around me, however; curiously they were rebelling their parents. My friends would rather be cut off and trudge over paying rent and groceries before receiving a peacefully lined up education. Why? Then I looked at the bigger picture. My parents didn’t push for me to go to college, in fact, my mother didn’t think it was a good investment nowadays. In an essence, most children rebel in their own parallel universe to feel as if they are developing themselves independently and uninfluenced by the rules they grew up with. Everyone experiences growing pains in life and perspective can make them as beautiful as you want them to be. 

For spring break this year me, my boyfriend, his neighbor, and an old friend of ours all decided to go camping! At first we wanted to camp out hardcore on the southern most island in Georgia, I think it’s called Columbus Island. We would have had to take a ferry to get there and prepare before the ferry ride. No hotels or restaurants crowd Columbus Island. Horses run wild on the east coastal side of the island while alligators creep through the murky waters to the southwest side. Sam called the booking department, “All booked up” they said.

Maybe camping on a secluded island isn’t the best idea for a bunch of beginners after all. We decided this was better off and kept searching for the perfect place to camp on the beach. Henderson State Park right outside of Destin, Florida sounded perfect!! We booked a campsite for four nights and were ready to go!

The state park was beautiful! All of the campsites were in the underbrush. It was so fascinating seeing what the peninsula of Florida once was like before it was developed. A trail led is through the thick tropical underbrush and brought us out to a boardwalk. The boardwalk took us safely through the mystifying sand dunes and all the sea turtles. The white sand beach was breathtaking! The beach was private for campers only and we were almost always out there on our own. It was a very relaxing vacation. I really enjoyed not being stuck in a crowd of drunk crazy spring breakers this year.

On the drive back home our friend’s car broke down in Union Springs, Alabama. We met some very interesting characters that thankfully helped us get back on the road. $500 and five hours later we were back on the road! The only thing I would change if I could do it again would be to bring our puppy Bowser!

Throughout the entire last week I have eagerly waited for the moment to look through my mail. Did my financial aid check arrive? Nope, it hadn’t. My first test was suppose to be last week, but nope it wasn’t. What was the deal? Well, last thursday was my first test and come to find out, I made a 101! So this was good and lightened my week a little bit. Then came friday. I did a report for my yoga guru on my most important yama and brought it into her for evaluation and critique. I also thoroughly enjoyed this part of my week because the journey I’m taking in becoming a yogi is very personal and exciting for me! Work has become the most ordinary thing for me so I remember a blur of working throughout the weekend. Most of my saturday was spent in my books, studying for my upcoming tests.

Sunday arrived and brought a new week with it. I’m not an insane sport freak but I was rooting for the Giants to win the Superbowl! This seemed to be a good start to my week. Monday showed up. No financial aid check. I called the business and financial aid departments only to discover that I have to write an appeal to receive aid and pay for my tuition. Wham! What a blow that brought my heightening week crumbling downward. So I’ve spent my entire Monday gathering documents and typing up a proposal of appeal. I still have to review for two tests tomorrow. Wish me luck this week!

Today my boyfriend Sam and I took our puppy Bowser to Dillinger Park for the first time. Everyday when we take him outside he can see the park from across the field in the backyard. So today when we took him outside we decided his little puppy legs were long enough to take on the trails. As soon as I grabbed my keys Bowser knew something was going down. When Sam put him in my lap and closed the car door he looked at me, expecting me to communicate to him where we were going. It took less than a minute to get there and Bowser could see the ducks in the pond from the window. His tail started wagging the second I secured his leash on him, he’s such a good puppy. We exited the car and started for the trail, forgetting all about the ducks we’d left behind. We passed a few other dogs that kept trotting along while Bowser sniffed, stopped, and watched. Eventually he got the hang of the idea and really started enjoying the scenery. He started getting tired and stopping, or trying to jump into our arms so we would carry him. Maybe Bowser wasn’t quite big enough for the entire run. We took a shortcut on an off-beaten path that we thought would bring us out into the middle of the pond. Turns out we hadn’t even made it that far! The path brought us out right before the pond, exactly where we had started. As soon as Bowser got home he was exhausted and took a little puppy nap while me and Sam peacefully watched the movie Troy.