Growth
I've been living on my own for over two years now.
The intention has always been that this is just my 'time off' from school. Time to get my head straight. Time to grow into myself before I'm ready to climb the rungs of life. Going back to school has always been the plan. In the meantime though it's been more about personal development.

This phase of my life effectively started when I moved to Toronto. I had been hanging around Ottawa and had a brief stint in Montreal before ending up in Toronto, but this chapter started the day I arrived in Toronto. It was significant not only because it was my first day living in a new city, but that day I noticed a sharp pain growing in my abdomen. The sharp pain is what ended up being my kidney stones, which, for comparisons sake, I rank right up there in life changing events with my broken leg (I wish I had time to explain how important my broken leg was, but basically the friends I am friends with now, I think had a lot to do with me breaking my leg).
My diet and health lifestyle in general were absolutely atrocious. I ate a pack of crackers and drank a 2L bottle of coke daily and very rarely consumed actual food.

It took another kidney stone scare to really have the message hit home, but because of it, I adjusted my diet. I completely cut crackers out, and very rarely drank soda. My diet still wasn't the greatest, but I had fortunately started working at a vegetarian restaurant and was living with Alex and Marisa who normally prepared proper meals.

... then we started to notice our bug problem.

Though never a complete slob, my home with my mother was never particularly clean. Now all of a sudden I had a cockroach infestation in my own apartment. I'd feel them on my feet while I sat at my computer, they would crawl on my desk, and at night you couldn't set a foot on the kitchen floor without stepping on bugs... I really wish I was exaggerating. It was horrible. I don't even know how we all put up for it as long as I did, but I list that as another of the trials that has helped me to grow. I've never really had a messy room since.
My room is spotless now, even my bed's made.

When Alex and Marisa moved out I felt a lot of pressure to prove to myself exactly how much I had grown. To a large degree I depended on them. Because of them there was always food in the fridge, always a meal I could get the leftovers of and I also felt a bit of pressure to make sure I kept myself taken care of just so that I didn't look bad by comparison. With them gone I had to prove to myself that I could handle life, truly on my own.

My life is built around chapters. I've segmented it very clearly and this is a chapter of self-development. I am proud of myself. After some tooth pains about a month ago I've been brushing at least twice a day, often three. I've even started flossing! (which I am really going to stress on myself to make sure I keep doing it... God do I ever hate flossing...)
This chapter ends in April.

In April I will be moving to Montreal to begin the next chapter. I miss my friends so much. For whatever reason it's only really started to hit home how much I actually miss them. Maybe just because the move is now impending. It's finalized. I'll be there in the spring :).
I don't want to call myself an adult, not yet, but I feel like I've grown up. Mentally I feel I've made similar strides, but that might be a topic for another day. It's a subject that would be a lot more difficult to actually quantify, but the gains are equally substantial.

Either way, I'm going back to school. Not because I feel I should or because I feel I have to, but because I'm ready.

And that's that.