23 And Carefree

One of the lines that was heard coming out of my mouth about 2 months ago as I was in the middle of what felt like a complete mental breakdown went a little like this: "I just want to be a 23 year old!"

This could mean any number of things, I guess. I mean, it's no secret that, although we fit in wonderfully here at the Mount, 20-somethings don't frequent these halls. At least I have someone with me, but it's nice to throw someone new into the mix every now and then. Sometimes you just feel like doing something wild, like book a dirt cheap bus ticket to New York City on a whim at 11:30 on some random Tuesday night, which is precisely what happened. 8 weeks later, Carrie and I found ourselves embarking on a 13-hour road trip from Erie to Pittsburgh to NYC to Long Island to reunite with our college friend.

I guess it's wishful thinking that my carefree attitude when it comes to travel will never fade, but I still pray it doesn't. For some reason, landing in NYC at 12:30AM on some random corner in the Fashion District with our only smart phone dead isn't scary at all. It's called, "this way looks good, let's try it!" ADVENTURE! And viola! Penn Station! Then we buy our railroad ticket for a train that leaves in an hour, only to find out that if I took my phone off silent I could have bought a ticket for an earlier train. But wait! Hop on and see if this one will still work? BAM! Long Island Railroad! Arriving at Michelle's 40 minutes earlier than our ETA? I'd say that's success!

In all, this mini-vaca was a lot of fun. It made me realize how much I've really missed my other partner in crime, and how necessary it was for me to just...be. No bells, no set times for anything, just having fun and making up your own schedule. And having girl talk, of course. You know, cute guys, your personal problems, blah, blah, blah. The things only your best friends would know. And then there are those completely rational ideas, like making hair dyeing the first thing you do after not seeing each other since last June, and making brownies at 11:30pm when you have to leave for the city to catch the bus back home just a few hours later. Like I said, carefree. It applies to everything.

This may sound like such a jumbled mess of a thought process, but after a lot of praying, journaling, and talking out my breakdown with my mentor and fearless leader, I came to the conclusion that this was kind of needed. It wasn't a quick fix right as it was happening, but it gave me something exciting to plan and look forward to, which took the pressure off the stress I was feeling at that time and allowed me to look at what might have been contributing to all of that. Thank you to everyone for understanding that this break was needed, and for being excited and happy for us. I got to spend some much needed time with one of my best friends that I hadn't seen in a year. I had a blast!