So, I have officially reached the age and stage in my life where everyone around me (including me) is either getting married, engaged, having children, buying their first house, graduating college, getting a full time job ... pretty much "adulting." I have come to the realization that I am no longer a child and I need to start figuring out how to be a "grown up." This realization has brought me to my next stage in life ... the anxiety stage.

You would think that each stage in life would gradually come into affect, like the pre-teen stage to teen stage, or the high school student stage to the college student stage. Well, if you thought that, you would be totally wrong. Some stages will just slap you in the face at a random time on a random day ... and you won't know what hit you.

Yesterday was my slap in the face day. The day I realized that I have to start thinking about my future. I've got to start thinking about things I would have never thought I'd be thinking about now. Like where the septic tank for my future house is going to be, how I'm going to get wifi, at what age do I want to start having children, who I'm going to invite to my wedding, how I'm going to decorate an ENTIRE house, how will I possibly do my taxes ... the list grows by the second. And as this list grows longer and longer, my anxiety completely sky rockets.

This stage in life shouldn't be so stressed filled, but you can't help but feel overwhelmed with everything being thrown at you. Although it is a very intimidating stage, it also has the most wonderful and beautiful moments associated with it. This stage in life shouldn't be called the anxiety stage, instead it should be called the future building stage ... or something not so scary. Every moment and decision that is made in this stage is building your future life, your future everything, really. It's nothing to be nervous about, although I can't say I'm not nervous most of the time right now. It's a stage that you are going to look back at years down the road, after you've started and finished more stages than you can count, and want to do it all over again.

Even though I am stressed to the max at the moment and feel like this anxiety stage will never end, I keep telling myself that it's all going to be worth it. Life is a beautiful ride, enjoy every stage that comes your way.