Back to blogging.

I decided tonight that it was time for a new blog. My friends are all over the country and I have been terrible at communicating my life. I also live alone and don’t have anyone to tell my stories to at the end of the day. But these problems are now solved. This blog is the solution. I hope.

Normally, I would start out by writing some sort of purpose-statement for the blog and include what you should expect this to be. But I’m not. You’ll just have to keep reading to find out.

Today’s post is on life transitions. Specifically the one I’m in.

Transitions are hard. I was watching the Sing Off on Monday and Ben Folds was praising one of the groups because they sang well through five transitions. He implied that they accomplished a difficult task. I think the hard thing about transitions is that they require faith, and having faith is hard. There is a creek only a few feet deep that runs through the woods I often played in when I was younger. My cousins and I would cross the creek by walking on a tree that had fallen over it. I remember being nervous because I wasn’t sure if I could balance well enough to make it all the way.

This is a fairly recent picture of some of my cousins in the creek:

The transition of life I’m in right now feels like I’m standing over the creek on that tree. I’m out of college and glad because of it, but I’m not quite stable in the real world. One of the hardest things about this transition is that it is difficult to find people to relate to. I’m not living the college life anymore, but I’m not living like a full-fledged adult, either. The church I’ve been attending has a college group and a singles group, but I don’t really feel like I belong in either one. (This problem is exacerbated by the fact that many people in similar transitions have dropped out of church, but that’s a blog topic for a different day.)

Transitions also make things interesting. That’s why transitions in songs are good. My cousins and I weren’t crossing the creek because we wanted to be on the other side. We crossed the creek because it was dramatic. Stories without transitions would be boring. I’m sure when I look back on this time of my life, I’ll be able to see the big picture. I’ll remember this little one-bedroom apartment and all of the frozen dinners I prepared. I’ll remember all of the little lessons about life I’ve learned and the fun memories I’ve made in the process. I’ll be thankful for this time of transition and the chance I took on moving out alone and going to grad school.

Transitions shouldn’t stop. My dad has a quote printed out and stuck on the bottom of a picture frame on his desk. It says, “When your memories become more exciting than your dreams, you’ve begun to die.” A little morbid, but it is true. Improvement and growth require transitions. Even though some of the things about my transitions are hard and unpleasant, I know I’ll be better for going through them.

I know many of my friends and some of my family members are in a stage of transition, so I hope you relate to this. It turned out a little preachier than I intended, but it’s just what came to mind. I’d like to know what came to yours, so leave a comment, please. (Even if it is completely unrelated, I want to know!)