23.

Like most years of my life, I can’t believe this one has passed by much like every other.

Just like that.

What with all of the big changes that’ve come in the last year - from graduating college to moving to a completely new city - the arrival of the big 2-3 has given me a chance to think back on what’s gotten me here today.

It’s also made me realize just how quickly time passes.

I remember sitting in classes my senior year of high school stressing out about colleges and making the hard decision of choosing what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I remember the continual back-and-forth of deciding between Ball State or the University of Cincinnati. And I even remember wondering if I’d make friendships in college anywhere close to the level of friendships I’d made back home.

And yet despite all the stress, hindsight’s shown me that everything worked out just as it was supposed to.

I can see now that the decision to choose nursing as my major after my first day volunteering in my hometown hospital’s small emergency department was the right one.

I’ve realized that if given the the chance to go back and change things, no matter the option Ball State would never, ever be something I’d change.

And I’ve found that not only have I kept the great friends I made in high school, but I’ve made what sometimes feels like a million others.  In looking back, this I find myself being most proud of in the friends I’ve made. Not only have these friends helped me grow into the person I am today, but they’ve helped me realize what I stand for.  And for that I can’t thank them enough.

Then came along college, easily some of the hardest yet greatest years of my life.  The four years were spent stressing not only about creating a life outside the one I had lived for eighteen years back home, but also in surviving my school work.  The stress levels I faced getting into the nursing program were nothing compared to the stress that remained after being admitted. I can recall the countless nights spent in the library with anxiety levels through the roof about the next upcoming exam, the monthly program I needed to plan for my floor or the deadline I needed to meet for some position I held.

And even closer to the end of my senior year there remained the newest anxiety of worrying about where I wanted to work and move to.

Yet in looking back, I find myself being a little annoyed with myself for how much I worried about every little thing because just as they always have, everything worked out just fine.

What with all the stress I put on myself in nursing school, I was somehow doing well enough that I began tutoring other nursing students in the material, helping them find their own ways to study and ways to somehow survive the craziness of the program.

I was also I meeting some of the most amazing friends of my life, friends who were my faithful companions to many midnights spent at McDonald's and countless Thursday nights singing karaoke at the Chug.  Friends who were always down for a spontaneous adventure and who never failed to give me the support I needed to get through some rough times. I oftentimes find myself missing them the most.

And after months of stress, I even remember getting that fateful phone call one April afternoon with a job offer to a hospital in a city that’s quickly changing my life.

Looking back on the past eight years, I can see that despite all of the anxiety, hardships, and sometimes continual questioning of the paths I’ve taken, there’s never been a time where I find myself wishing I could go back and change things.  While things may not have always happened in the way I had planned, those detours got me to where I am today.

And so now I’m at a crossroad in life, caught between one phase and another. More and more lately I’ve found myself wondering, “What next?”

I had always been told the period after graduating from college is a strange one, even hard at times.  I was told that you go from having a million things to do to zero, all seemingly in seconds. From having countless papers, assignments, and meetings to attend to coming home after a long day of work to a date with Netflix instead.  Of having all your friends within a half-mile radius of yourself to seeing many of them move away. And from being one hundred percent certain of the job and city you’d chosen to questioning those decisions altogether.

So when thinking about the sometimes melancholy year that 23 can be, having to adjust to a completely new lifestyle while still sometimes wishing for a chance to go back and relive some younger years, I’d also like to think that I still have countless things to be thankful for already.

For having an incredible job with some of the greatest, most hard-working people I could ever ask to work with.

For already making amazing new friends, all of us in the same boat in figuring out this whole “adult” thing.

For being able to call our nation’s capital my home - a place many only dream of living at.

So yes, while I may be homesick at times, missing my friends and family.  Or while I may have an occasional rough day at work. Or even when I have my doubts about the decisions that’ve gotten me to this point entirely.  While I’m still tentatively crossing this newest road from one point in my life to another, I also know that everything will work out - just as they always have. If there’s anything that can prove to me that all things happen for a reason, I need only to look at my past to see how the events in my life, the friends I’ve made, and the experiences I’ve been met with have all led me to where I am today.

And I have to say, I wouldn’t change any of that for the world.

So here’s to 23.  May it be filled with as many detours needed to make this life of mine an adventure.