Recently, I've been going through some intense changes in my life, changes more intense than my decision to dye my hair back to its natural color (or as close as I could get it to my natural color). I started going through this massive lifestyle change. Let me tell you just how amazing, yet crazy it is. It started with me realizing how much unnecessary baggage, psychical and literal, that I was carrying around in my life. I started with the tangible items first. I got rid of 85 percent of the clothes I owned. I got rid of everything that did not have purpose in my life. Let's take a moment of silence for my stuffed unicorn collection, shall we?

Anyway, once I cleared out the tangible items, I started looking inside myself. What did I want to change? What did I not like about myself? What did I like? Let me tell you something, soul searching is not half as easy as dumping all my unwanted possessions into a trash bag and getting a tax deductible receipt from dropping them off at the Goodwill (and yes, if you file taxes you should be saving those). My personal motto is "If you don't like something, change it." I started with my attitude toward others. I am a very judgmental person, and I decided to change that. Now, I try to remind myself before making snap judgments, that I haven't walked in their shoes. I shouldn't be judging them. I wanted to lose weight, so I started eating holistically, organically and processing free. Basically, if it has an ingredient label, I don't eat it.

Next came the task of finding out what I like about myself. I'm still working on that one. I've decided I like my eyelashes, my ability to empathize with people and my ability to work with animals. The big kicker here is that I'm starting to realize what life is really about, by getting rid of all the "things" in my life, that I didn't need. Life is about collecting experiences, stories, and adventures, not stuffed unicorns.

The third step in this process is still ongoing. This step is to cut out the negativity and bad vibes from my life. I know this is impossible to do entirely, but it is possible to cut out the majority of them. For instance, my current job is negative. It has some of the best pay and benefits available to someone without a degree, but I have no passion for it. I don't get any kind of enjoyment from it, and quite frankly, just feel like one of the many worker bees in a busy hive. I also have to commute an hour there and back, and that puts stress on me and my car. So I'm looking for something local that will enable be to be part of my community again.

Really, when I take a deeper look at this, this is just a way for me to step into adulthood. It's not as gracefully as one would have hoped, but they are steps in the right direction towards figuring myself out. I read more, run more and love more. Life is a learning curve, an ongoing process that I'm still working on.