All Grown Up… sort of.

This summer I’m interning at the Admission Office. I decided to live in an off campus house right across the street from William and Mary. Living on my own has been a huge change. Who knew that you had to pay for power, water, rent, and cable? Wait, if you don’t pay the electric bill they turn of the lights? I don’t really know how I thought the real world would be, but I’m beginning to understand what it’s like to leave college and it is already a lot to take in. Packing my own lunch for work, going to the local laundromat and not having automatic food from a meal swipe at the Cafeteria, has been a reality check to say the least. My bathroom doesn’t just clean itself, what? I have noticed a lot of my upperclassmen friends going through this same realization of adulthood. We have been taking for granted living on campus, having our room and board paid at the beginning of each semester and having laundry facilities on the dorm hall. It’s now time to grow up… sort of.

Every summer we leave our course schedules, friends, free time, and late nights behind and instead pick up 8AM to 5PM jobs, come home after work and make dinner only to collapse before midnight and start all over again the next day. This new routine gives me a sense of what I have to look forward to. As I go into my senior year I feel nervous-excited. Nervous about my senior year classes, nervous about getting a job, and nervous about leaving this wonderful place. And at the same time I’m excited for my future because I know I have been prepared and given the tools for success thanks to my parents, friends, and William and Mary.