Home Sweet Centralia.

Yep, I'm home in Centralia for the time being, until tomorrow night. Arrived back in town yesterday afternoon, to find only that it hasn't changed much since my last trip home. Yup. After Jami's graduation festivities, I got my first night of good sleep in quite awhile...that is, until my mother so kindly woke me up this morning with her LOUD conversation with my grandmother. Anyhoo, after I fell back asleep, I woke up again naturally and spend the day relaxing followed by a trip to the grocery store w/ my dad. We're grilling ribeyes, chicken, corn, and equally yummy stuff tonight, and I plan on spending the remainder of the evening doing ??? We'll see where things go. Tomorrow I'll be heading back in the late evening, after meeting Cheryl for dinner in STL.

So, I don't think my parents are thrilled with my plans for more school. They think that I should find a job, work for a few years, save money, and then decide if I want more education. As for me, I know very well that if I DON'T go on now, I will probably find an excuse not to go any further, period. I'll find myself in Springfield in ten years, and will always wonder what it would have been like if I had left. However, I made a decision in my life last year, after various things happened, and that decision was to never live to "regret"-don't leave things unsaid or undone, because it's very likely that you'll live to regret it. The point is, I don't like Illinois, and I DON'T want to be here in ten years-so I'm applying to grad school and come a year from now, you will very likely find me in a much different (and likely southern) locale. If my family thinks I'm making a mistake, then that's their problem-some of us aren't meant to "settle"-at least not any time before we're ready to.

Not that my parents aren't supportive. I don't mean to sound like that. But I DO think they want me to "settle", and I'm nowhere near ready to be one of THOSE people-I have my whole life for that. Right now I'm living for me.

With that said, I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes-one that my cousin Alisha discovered during our U of I days:

"Some people may say you are going the wrong way, when it is simply a way of your own. "-Anonymous