(Photo by: lancesh/ / CC BY 2.0 )

My name is Lucy, I’m 19 years old and I currently am in my third year of College (yes! at 19, believe it or not, I know I’m weird!). Even though I have a good public university across the street from my house, the major that I am studying which is English for translation between it and Spanish (my *original* language); So I had to move out to a different province, or state if you can picture it better, and started to live on my own when I had just turned 16… Can you imagine that?

It IS tough, very very hard. I had to do my laundry, clean the apartment, cook my own food, pay bills and on top of it all go to college (which was a long 2 buses trip of about an hour and a half), do my homework, study, buy groceries, handle a budget so that the money for each necessity wouldn’t disappear… At the beginning it was-sometimes it still is- madness! Since I was only 16 I was used to having my parents handling my money for transportation, food, books, etc. I cried many nights because not only was it a dramatic and exhausting change but it was also a sad and lonely situation, having always lived with both my parents and my brother I felt so sad and lonely…

Not everything was bad, though! Don’t get me wrong! I don’t want to mis-inform you ladies about College life away from home! It is a TREMENDOUS experience! Once you start getting used to your new routine and to your budget -believe me you will learn or starve trying! - and start making friends and learning the things you love everything will start to look much more brightly and you will enjoy the experience. On my second semester I joined a cultural group at my college where I got to know some of my current closest friends whom I love to death!

Also, I became much more independent, brave and strong. Having to face everything on your own with no help may be overwhelming at the beginning but if you try your best I know you can make it because I could and I was a rare case… scratch that I’ve always been weird… and the youngest at everything I do! Even now that I am 19 my classmates are 22 or 23 years old and since my major ends next year, if everything goes on smoothly I will graduate at 20! sooooo exciting!… See? not everything is bad with the world! lol… But in regards to independence there are up-sides and down-sides as there is with all things in life.

On the one hand it will not be easy! Or relaxing or pretty or many things you may have pictured… ahem…. *coughs* parties and sororities and all that!… When your “world” changes you can stay as you are and let it run you over or you can morph from a caterpillar into a butterfly and grab the wheel of your destiny with both hands having for assistant the compass that resides in a connection between your heart and your brain! It is hard but you can do it!

On the other hand, you will learn much more than you ever thought possible: about the world and more importantly about yourself. You will realize you are much more capable of many things you believed you could never do. You will develop so many abilities you didn’t even think you could! To help you with the budget the economist in you will come out, there is also a chef-like imaginary friend that will teach you many things, the strong woman in you will learn that some sacrifices are necessary to reach your goals… and the gorgeous, independent, free-spirited woman that is waiting to emerge in each one of you will, when the time is right!

I don’t know what fate will bring but I know that I am capable enough to do it on my own, although I do believe that you should ask for help when you know you can’t do it on your own!

Take care and stay strong… and independent

XOXO

Lucy

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