I had a lot of fun writing last week’s blog post and for me, the best feeling is when someone messages me and says they enjoyed reading it. Incase you didn’t give it a read, in last week’s blog post I named each era of my Georgetown experience and reflected on it. I had a few conversations with different people about last week’s blog post and it got me thinking about the “era” that I’m in right now.

I feel as though this year has been different, especially this current semester that just started in January, in terms of what my life looks like. I have a lot less school stress on my plate (believe me, still a good amount on a busy week, but not as much as usual) and I have other things going on in my life like my new part time job working at a kids daycare. I’m also spending a lot of time not focused on strictly school things but planning for next year by looking into apartments and planning trips to take this summer, and all that jazz. So for the first time in my college career, my life is not consumed by school, but instead, school is just a part of the many things going on in my life. In last week’s post, I named this the “enjoying the now” era. 

When I was talking to friends this week about my last post, they pointed out the different eras they are in; one friend talked about how she was in the “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” era and is experiencing all of that growth that I talked about going through. I was talking to one of my sisters about how she is in her “taking it all in” era where she’s just grinding at the library every day until late and how she soon hopes she’s in her “payoff” era. I thought these conversations were interesting because it was fun to think about how my progression through my time at Georgetown (as illustrated through the different eras I named) is not unique to me. We may all have different experiences, but we are all sort of following the same progression.

This got me thinking about how this current era of life that I am in is the first time in a while that I’ve been in a stable period of life. From the moment I started college I felt as though I was going through all of this personal growth and then learning lots and deciding what I wanted to do with my future, and it was never just stable; there was always something up in the air, something I was applying for, or something I just had to stick out until the end. This period of my life is the first time since all of that started that I kind of have everything sorted out and can just be present or “enjoy the now.”

I was talking to my older sister last night and our conversation made me think of this topic too. She just graduated college last year and was talking about how she is going through all of the normal post-grad emotions. She mentioned how it’s a time where you’re processing lots and learning lots and once again growing. This got me thinking about how this is probably the last stable point in my life for a few years before I leave college and enter out into that post-grad world and navigate a career, different relationships, and all the challenges that come with adulting for the first time. 

I guess this whole reflection got me thinking about how there are different phases of life and how life is not just one straight path but more of a bumpy path. We can have these periods of growth and change and then these more laid back periods where we’re enjoying the growth we’ve achieved and waiting for the next phase to come along. So here’s me saying that I’m enjoying the here and the now and whatever part of that bumpy road of life you’re in, just appreciate that it’s part of a bigger journey!