Over the weekend, I decided to go to a wine festival very last minute at Big Cork Winery in Rohrersville, MD. I was not planning to go to this event after a night out drinking with the girls. But when two of my best friends, Allison and Jess, both coincidently figured out they were both going in different groups, I decided to tag along. It was very impromptu since I was hungover and didn’t have any decent clothes or make-up with me. I was already 45 minutes from home after sleeping over at Jess’s the night before, but Allison let me borrow some make-up and Jess let me borrow this matching set from American Eagle. I’m obsessed with it! I got so many compliments on it and its so comfortable and flattering on my body. Plus the wine festival was so fun! There was a wine tasting, food trucks and three different cover bands. I sat on the lawn with Allison and Jess drinking wine on a warm, sunny and beautiful day. This winery is located in the mountains and everything was so picturesque. I can’t wait to go back.
There was something that Allison said to me while we were listening to one of the cover bands and drinking Moscato that really resinated with me. She said “Just think, if we were still in college we wouldn’t have been able to come to this today”. And its true because we would be on the Eastern Shore 3 hours away gearing up for our first day of school if we were still in college. Last week I wrote this post about missing college and some thoughts I had on that. But I think after this weekend I’m starting to appreciate this stage of my life and where I am now.
You know that song “You’re Gonna Miss This” by Trace Adkins? If you don’t know it, go listen to it and pay attention to the lyrics. Its a song about taking for granted where you are now and not realizing that once this stage of your life is over and you move onto the next, you’re gonna miss it. I played this song a lot right before I graduated, but I never really thought about how that song could possibly relate to me right now as currently live with my parents and work 40 hours a week.
But I think its important for me to realize how unique this time period is for me. I’m the youngest person at my job and my coworkers always tell me to try to live with my parents for as long as possible because that will really help me financially. But another point that I try to be thankful for is the fact that I get to see my parents everyday. Its really sad to think about but I know one day, in the distant future, they won’t be around anymore and I’ll be glad I got to have morning coffee with my mom and homemade dinners with my dad as often as I do now.
Its kind of mind-blowing to me that I’ll never really be in this sort of situation again. I know how quickly life can change and there is definitely a small chance that years from now I could move back in with my parents and be broke, alone, ugly and have no friends. But lets hope thats not the case and even if that does happen, life will be totally different. (Again, fingers crossed that does not happen). Years from now I won’t be a new college grad and I won’t have all the same friends that live near me now so close. I think its important to acknowledge that right now I don’t have that many bills that I have to pay (but don’t worry my student loans are slowly creeping up on me), I don’t have a boyfriend (way to go Kim) and I don’t have kids yet (let me stress for a moment how grateful I am for that right now because most days I feel like a literal infant myself). I get to be selfish right now which is a really awesome thing. The word selfish usually has a bad connotation to it but I think thats the best way to describe this stage of my life because I really get to live for myself and only myself. Now lets not get too crazy with that idea because its not like I’m about to call in sick to work at 8:58am or trash my parents house. Being selfish in this sense is not being inconsiderate or rude. But its really only worrying about yourself because its during this time that your life choices really only impact you.
I also think this concept pertains to where I am with blogging at the moment. I’ve only been blogging for a little over a year and I’m still trying to figure out what works for me and what doesn’t. I look at where some of my favorite bloggers started 3, 5 and 10 years ago and I love how they talk about their early days of starting out. It makes me really excited for where I can take this and how different my life will be 3, 5 and 10 years from now. Will I be married? Have any kids? Living in a city? Blogging full time? Will I be lazy and gross and living in a cardboard box? WHO KNOWS?? *laughs nervously*
There are so many opportunities that I have right now that I’ve never had before. Just based on where I’m currently living I get to see friends and family that used to be pretty far away from me. I live near two major cities which means I get to go to sports games, clubs and concerts with my friends whenever the opportunity arises. I have gotten to travel to so many places already that I’ve never been to before and those opportunities will only increase with time. I’m lucky enough to have gotten a full-time job I adore right out of college that is teaching me so much and granting me so many wonderful opportunities. There are so many people in this world that hate their jobs and I’m one of the lucky people who doesn’t. I tend to always want what I can’t have so for a long time I only wanted to go back in time to where things were routine and familiar to me. But now I’m trying to live more in the present and appreciate how life is now.
Am I bragging? Is that what this post has become? I hope I’m not coming across as conceited or snotty. The bottom line is that I don’t want to take this specific part of my life for granted. It may not be as ideal as I planned it to be, but that isn’t a bad thing. I think when I was 16 I had this grand plan of moving out from my parents house right after college to a big city with the handsome and tall love of my life (who is still MIA). But that wasn’t in the cards for me and that is not a bad thing. I hope that as you’re reading this (and if you’re in the same situation I am) that you can look around be grateful for where you are now before life does a total 180 on both of us and we’re singing that Trace Adkins song to each other.
Orange ya glad we found Jess in this vineyard
lets all salute to Lady Liberty
You’re probably noticing the tear on the left side of this outfit. Its not because my boobs are super big or anything… it ripped in the wash. Thankfully my Oma sewed it back together.
Big thanks to Jess for letting me borrow this outfit and for taking these pictures of me. Big thanks to Allison too for forcing me to go to this wine festival. This exact outfit is sold out but I linked very similar jumpsuits and pants below! Since I loved this look so much I’m definitely planning on buying more matching sets for fall. Would you be interested in seeing more of these outfits?