When Did I Become An Adult? And How Do I Make The Process Slow Down?

Well, I didn't want to jinx it, but it seems that as of now it's a pretty sure thing, so here's my big news: I've found an apartment!

That's right folks, as of May 8th I will officially be a resident of Brooklyn. I'm so excited and scared and weirded out by the whole thing! Signing a lease seems like such a huge deal- it's one of my first real big-time adult actions- but I'm so happy that I've found this place.

It's a third floor walk-up in the Bay Ridge neighborhood, which is a really safe, family-oriented area of Brooklyn. It's about 20 minutes from Union Square on the subway; pretty far, but considering I'll be saving over $1300/month, it seems to make pretty good sense to me. I'll be living with two other girls, Aubrey and Emma. I haven't met Emma yet, but Aubrey is really nice and seems like someone I'll really be able to get along with.

And the place! There are only two apartments in the whole of the building, so we have the whole third floor to ourselves. The living room area is huge, my room is bigger than my room at home, and it has an entire wall that's a built-in closet. The kitchen has a ton of counter space, a gas stove (thank goodness!), and a full-sized fridge. There's a dining room area with a full table, and we have a grill on the fire escape. Also, we can climb up the ladder and go on the roof- I haven't been up there, but Aubrey said there's a great view of the Manhattan skyline and the Verrazano Bridge, and that she likes to tan up there in the summer.

The lease that we're going to be signing (on Saturday the 24th, so soon!) is May 2010-2011. That means that I'm going to get to be in New York all summer, working full-time for my job in the Math department and hopefully picking up another part-time job waitressing or something. And what's even better is that almost all of my closest friends are going to be here as well!

I'm just so excited to be able to spend this summer working full-time, earning a ton of money, living in New York City, and hanging out with my friends. Also, I'll be starting my junior year in the fall (it's so hard to believe that I'll be a junior already), and now that I finally have my major completely figured out, I'm going to be taking classes that are 100% in my major. Finally, I'll be done with my LSP requirements once and for all (and I'll officially have an Associate's degree- my first college degree!) and be able to concentrate what I really love: Applied Psych. I met with my adviser yesterday, and she told me that I was pretty ahead in terms of credits, and that I may actually be able to graduate a semester early!

That of course got me thinking about what I would do if, come January 2012 (which is not that far away!), I was completely done with my undergrad work. I know that I've got plenty of time to figure it out, but it's weird to think that I might be done a full semester earlier than I had originally thought.

It seems that a lot of my financial problems are going to be lessened, as well, since I won't be paying obscene amounts of money towards NYU housing anymore. They're not going to disappear completely, but they will certainly be a little less stressful, which I'm very much looking forward to.

All in all, it's been a pretty solid couple of days for me. It seems that things are looking up- finally- and I'm so happy about it!