It has been a little over a year since I walked across the stage and received my diploma, and it is safe to say that life has been nothing like I thought it was gonna be.

Graduating I knew there were gonna be things that my mom did for me that I would now have to do for myself, like schedule appointments and buy my own groceries, what I did not know was all the stress and true responsibility that would come my way when I moved to college. I no longer had anyone pestering me about my homework being done and I had nobody to constantly give me money when I was in-between paychecks and running low on cash. Instead, I had to learn to decide if the ice cream from Dairy Queen was more important than knowing if my account had enough money in it to cover the payment that was due.

I have always had a pretty structured schedule throughout high school, as do most high schoolers. I would go to school from 8-3 and go to cheer practice from 3-5 and then from 5-11, I would go work and then repeat it all the next day until game day rolled around or it was a weekend. Basically, college is not as structured as I was used to. Most days I had three classes with maybe an hour or few in between and I got to decide what I did in my free time. Having to make the decision on whether I had time to watch two episodes of criminal minds or if I should get a quick study session before my next class.

I never really struggled with doing things like laundry or cleaning up after myself or cooking, since I did that when I lived at home too. However, I know plenty of people that had almost everything handed to them or done for them. I know from personal experience that people who did not have to do simple things like the dishes or sweep that wished their parents would have made them do more when they lived at home. Let's face it, doing the dishes seems easy until you've got six things in the dishwasher and 15 more in the sink and no idea how to fit them all in the washer so they get cleaned properly.

College is fun and I am so happy that I moved off. No matter what you do, if you go to college or you work straight out of high school, being an adult is hard, and no amount of preparation really gets you 100% ready for being on your own.