I’m lucky! No, really, I went to a Tarot Card reader and my cards read that I am lucky. See? This is one lucky girl…
Okay, okay, really…
I’m living at home. I’ve been living in the same room I grew up in for the past… six years. In a way, I do embrace my luck because I have wonderful parents who have graciously allowed me to live at home again! Thankfully, we’re in the same house too! How awesome? Some of my fellow high school friends have moved far, far away from our hometown… never to return again. This is a beautiful city to raise a family. But for the early- to mid- to late 20-somethings… this place is SOOOO BORING!
What was that you said about luck?
I am still living at home, and for those of you who can relate. I tip my hat off to you.

When I first moved home from four years of glorious freedom and self development, something new happened that had never happened to me before. I woke up one morning and saw that my mouth was bleeding. Wa Wa Say WHAT?! My gums were actually bleeding and I could taste the metallic iron all up in my oral cavity. I’ve been lucky (hey there’s that word again) to have decent enough teeth where I never needed braces and hadn’t even had a cavity yet. BUT BLOOD???
I was grinding and clenching my teeth at night so hard that all four of my first molars cracked and my gum muscles were working out for eight straight hours a night. No wonder I had constant headaches and my jaw hurt every morning.
So… this was new!
It was stress, look, it’s stressful to come home after you’ve began developing into your independent self. And I wanted OUT now!

But, six years later, here I am!
Why?

Six Reasons I Am Still at Home (and it’s okay!):
1. I really am saving money and stymying the black hole of debt I created. I have a couple of pretty cool parents who are okay with me living at home as long as I keep the career momentum going. I’ve found some odd jobs and some really beneficial jobs and have been able to save a nice stockpile of money while I pay loans and car insurance, among groceries, dry cleaning, cell phone… I’ll stop there although the list seems to expand like a quadratic.
2. I help my parents with finances and errands. My parents both work full time jobs. My schedule as a graduate school student is a little more lax than theirs. My hours are not 8-5, they’re more like 10-10, nevertheless I can do much of my work from home which gives me the lovely ability to intermingle my day with work-laundry- work- dishes- work- grocery shopping- work- make dinner.
3. I embrace any negative things from my past. I mean, I am literally living IN the past. I see it, (re) live it momentarily, and GET IT ALL OVER WITH! Growing up while admitting past deficits is wholesomely therapeutic.
4. I am finding new niches in my hometown… and beyond. This place is much cooler now, and crazier… but that’s all part of this region. Where else can you catch cannibalism at it’s finest? Are those two men picnicking? Is that a man tanning on the Miami highway? IS THAN MAN GIVING THE OTHER MAN CPR? Oh no, it’s just a local high on flakka nbd…
5. I am traveling more! My passport has never been stamped so many times! From Ecuador to Missouri and countries to visit on deck, now’s the time, eh?
6. I am humbled. I am seeing my parents in a new light. I don’t see them as these “uncool” rule makers who just “don’t understand me.” They are people, they were my age once and probably living a very different life than I am now (Vietnam War, disco era… oh yeah they weren’t living at home for sure!) I see the day in and day out begrudging work my parents put in to their days. Waking up early, coming home to robotically do dishes and laundry, I am truly seeing and appreciating all the years of WORK they put in to raising a family without complaining (out loud). When you come home after a day where customers are just up your butt and your boss is in your face, you start your second job at home. It’s humbling, to say the least. Family time is so amazing. The older I get, the more it is really sinking in that family is forever. I am so lucky (ding ding!) to live near the majority of my family in South Florida.

Maybe you can still be their little baby, but with direction and focus, less rampant hormones, and more respect. How proud they will be seeing you ‘adulting’ right under their roof! Plus, knowing them means knowing yourself better, too.

Bottom line: self adulations can commence- we’re doin fine! Soak it in and keep your mindset headstrong in ANY forward direction you WANT. Get your mind into it, let your heart swell around it, soon you’ll be looking back appreciating the time you spent reconnecting with your young self and once-so-uncool-now-incredible-parents and understand humility in a way only this experience can teach you. I really do see how lucky I am.