yikes

Sooooooo, tonight I’ll officially be two months into my arrival back in the states (yikes) and I’ve already hit the one month mark in Richmond (yikes x2). I can’t believe how fast time is flying, but at the same time it feel like so much time has passed because I’ve done so much. My time back has been filled with a summer camp, weekend trip to visit a friend, flying back to SD, packing up my life, tripping and seeing friends, getting strep, moving into my first ever apartment(!!!), starting a new job, starting a trivia team, socializing a ton (and making cool friends!) and all the other things that make up life.

I reflect a lot on how I feel being here and, honestly, this is a completely new experience. I’ve yet to live in a place in my adult life where I’m fully in charge of my future. In college, my plan was never to stay in Florida, and the pandemic was a factor in me moving home (although that was in the hopes of going to grad school). Then, as the pandemic continued and grad school was pushed back more and more (I only wanted to go in person and Australia’s borders were closed for sooooo long) I changed gears to be an au pair. As an au pair, I chose what families I worked for but overall, I wasn’t in charge of much (and contractually obligated to work) so, I was essentially in a limbo between adult and dependent. Now, I’ve chosen; where I’m living, working and how I’m spending my time with no subconscious outside pressure on social outings. An additional layer of complexity to my feelings is that there’s no deadline to my time here. I have a lease that ends next summer but a job that will continue pat that (unless me/the family change that) so I’m fully in charge of how long I’ll be here which is strangeeeeeeee. Also, a general complaint, but my room in my place is so small I don’t have the option to rearrange it (one of my favorite pastimes) which is a difficult pill to swallow.

Now, since you’re here, I’m going to use this last paragraph to tell you about the highlights of my time in Richmond so far. We’ll start with the event that was the most wild thing I’ve ever experienced….a backyard wrestling match. Practically live-action WWE, need I say more than that? I will but only because I’m still not over it. I was doubtful as I waited for the event to start, looking at the crowd but there was a point in time where one of the wrestlers jumped off the roof onto the other wrestlers in the tag team match (!!!!!). Another event that was good happened just last night, I watched the Taylor Swift Eras Tour film…..and it was SPECTACULAR. One noteworthy event that is really just a flex was that I purchased selves from FB marketplace and said to the seller “hey, I see you have kids, I just moved here and can babysit on weekends” and got a job with her from it!!! go me!!! I also posted on two local facebook pages in an attempt to make friends and ended up forming a trivia team from it and making some cool friends too. I saw a rainbow! I saw a ginkgo tree (iykyk)!! I also went to my first solo concert since being back (Moon Taxi with The Stews as openers) and had a great time, I do believe the venue played a large part though. I had the most unhinged Target trip where every time I looked down at my basket, I giggled while also having a somewhat serious convo with my sister (sorry, Taylor).

Sorry for the chaos and disorganization in this, we’ll circle back to the title for an excuse…yikes.