Change and the start of school.

Change is the only constant in life. - Heraclitus 

This quote, often distributed to a more modern author instead of an ancient philosopher, has always been one of my favorite things to reflect upon.

No quote can more accurately describe this period of life, that moment of being a college student, and the slow shift into adulthood. I've realized this quite a bit this last week. I promise there won't be nearly as many posts about change coming soon, but it's been a particularly large part of my life lately.

It's my last week here in DC. One internship turned into two, and now seven months later I'm very ready to come home. This has been one of the most amazing times of my life. I uprooted myself and left within a week of learning that I had received my internship. I was excited, giddy, a tad nervous, and now that I look back, so so young. 

I constantly talk about growth, mainly because I can't believe I'm the same person that I was a year ago, heck I can't believe the person I was in January. And that is a beautiful thing. This is exactly what the period of being a young adult is. Constant change. Even when I thought I was ready for change, I now realize that before I truly wasn't ready.

I've never approached change with so much sheer excitement and acceptance. I put down roots quickly, I like having a home, I'm sure most people can understand that. However, it doesn't mean that I enjoy the change, the force of what is coming next. I would always get a little teary eyed when something was coming to an end, whether it be the end of a semester or leaving my first apartment. 

Now? I'm ready to go home, I'm ready to start this next chapter of my life. I look forward to figuring out what is going to be a very tumultuous period of my life. Not only have I grown here in this city, but I came to become myself, more myself than I'd had the bravery to ever be before. 

Why you may ask?

Because I was alone. In the best sense of that word. No one here knew me, and coming from Wyoming, which we joke is a city with looooong roads that stretch across the whole state. I wasn't my father's daughter, I wasn't the Judge's granddaughter. Even when I went to university, a chance to get away from my small town and be a number, someone knew my other grandfather. 

I love that about home.

But.

Everyone should have the ability to at some point in their life go somewhere where no one knows them. Somewhere where they are living alone. Somewhere where they have to rely on themselves, and truly find out that they have the ability to do anything they put their mind to.   

Because you can. You can tackle the world. I can tackle the world, and I learned that. And now I'm ready to take that new found knowledge and finally, finally accept the change that is coming my way. Because, change truly is the only constant thing in out lives, something mankind has known for thousands of years. 

Things come in threes ~ Finding the good

Have you ever noticed that things come in threes?

It's an old wives tale, that in my small town back home seems to hold true to.

However, it's not just the old ladies who see it, I've seen in with everything in my life, or almost everything. Recently I had three groups of three bad things that happened in my life. Deaths, illnesses, health scares, you name it. I was sitting at eight for about a week and was getting pretty antsy. I didn't think I could handle more bad news, more loss, more sorrow. 

Something I think we forget is that it isn't just bad things that happen in threes. Good things can come in threes too. I believe that you will never just get the bad, all bad has to come with some good. You just have to find it, and in some cases that literally means you have to make the choice. I was tested this week, I had to make a choice I almost made myself sick over it, and that was completely unnecessary. Try as I might, those moments when I think that I'm chilling out and a becoming laid back human who lets life take me where it wants to? Yeah, well throw a decision in there and I'm right back to high anxiety Kaite. 

You have to choose the good, choose happiness, whether that means a job offer you've wanted or basking in a sunny day after rain. Go out there and choose to find the good. I did and obviously it was a step in the right direction because the universe threw two more things back at me, good things mind you. I have a summer internship in the field I love, I have a place to stay (and a friend from home as a roommate), and I won the student government position for the next school year that I'd been campaigning for. 

I'm excited and now that my life has settled a little, I'm trying to figure out what is going to happen next. Because life is never smooth sailing, it has highs and lows, and that to me is the beautiful thing. Tragedy really does make the good things seem that much better. 

Another thing this has taught me? You have to actively pursue what you want. I don't know if everything would have worked out if I hadn't taken that first step, that first decision. Everything happens for a reason, and we don't always get to know why. 

So my PSA for the day? Go find the good. Find it and when you find something you want, go after it. Life has a funny way of paying you back for things like that.