I graduated from high school 2 months ago. Awesome, right? In a way, yes. But now that I've finished the seemingly never-ending phase of my life where I sit in a desk for 7ish hours for 5 days a week, I have endless amounts of free time on my hands!

To me, this feels a lot like culture shock. (In case you're wondering what that means, Google defines it as "the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar way of life".) I'd say I'm feeling a little disoriented right now, for sure!! All of the sudden, if I want to have lunch, I can't just walk to the cafeteria. It's perfectly normal now have lunch with a friend in the middle of the day, or even to go grab food and eat it in the comfort of my own home. I no longer have to throw on a school uniform and rush out the door, or worry about my school's dress code when I'm trying to buy new clothes. Some of my friends have jobs, and I feel a lot like a stay-at-home mom running piles and piles of errands all day long while her kids are off at school.

I've hit this weird bump in my life where most of my friends are about to be 388 miles away, and I don't want to make any new friends here in my hometown before I move 388 miles away from them!! I'm too old to hang out with the high school crowd, but when I put myself around college-aged people, I feel small. (I'm 5'3" so of course I feel small, duh!) I ask them, "How is college?" and they proceed to tell me stories of their adventurous college experiences. Sure, I can listen and laugh when they tell me those stories of how they've stayed up until 5 in the morning studying for a test with their friends, but I can't relate. There's a slight disconnection for me, because I'm not there yet. Maybe I've been too sheltered, but I can count the times I've studied with my friends on one hand. Hopefully, of course, this will change in college- but I honestly have no idea what my future holds... And that's a little bit terrifying.

I'm lost in the anticipation of it all, but soon enough I'm hoping I'll be able to relate to those college kids I've talked to, and maybe I won't feel like the world is slowly coming to an end because I'm 18 and I suddenly have an "adult" label written across my forehead. I don't know about you, but I am nowhere even close to being an adult!

To those people who are like me, feeling stuck in between two major stages of their life: we will make it through this together!! We will move away to college, watch our parents drive away, and we will probably figure out how to actually live in the college fashion, like we're supposed to. But, for now, let's just get through this summer and try not to drown in the culture shock of being a high school graduate.