I just found out there's no such thing...

Okay, so there were not two entries yesterday, but I think I'm now on pace for one a day. I've got a schedule of when I post that works for me, so I may be able to keep this up. Weekends will be tougher, and at least this weekend I'll be gone most of Sunday, but the weekends will usually result in actual adventures so I'll do my best to keep my loyal following as up-to-date as possible.

Today's adventure is also real, but much more long-term than the traditional sense of the world. Today's adventure: the real world.

One year ago today I graduated from college. It's crazy to think about; without the regular pace of the school year to mark time, the days, weeks and months just fly by. But here I am now, one year into my adventure of being a real person with a real job and real responsibilities and all kinds of overall realness.

It's gone about as I expected, in some ways, and also deviated wildly from my expectations in others. Perhaps it's easiest to reflect on these changes in list form.

Things that are as I expected:

1) I am poor.
2) I am still able to live, without getting into debt (additional debt, I suppose, I am paying back some loans) despite being poor.
3) I have a few friends, though most of them are connected to work. Making non-work friends in the real world seems super difficult and unrealistic, honestly.
4) I enjoy my job, and I think I'm pretty good at it.
5) I have not magically expanded my cooking repertoire, and I still eat a probably unhealthy amount of frozen meals, fast food, pasta and, more specifically and most importantly, ramen.

Things that are not:

1) I live in Lynchburg, Va. Places I thought I might be living at this point include Richmond, Va.; anywhere in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan or Wisconsin; Washington, D.C.; New York City; literally any random city in America that is not Lynchburg. Lynchburg was not even on the list. Ever. In my entire life.
2) I do not hate living in Lynchburg.
3) I have kept in touch with my college friends super-duper well. This is not surprising, so much, as impressive and going better than I would've thought. This morning I tried to think of people who the last time I saw them was graduation day and the list was short, if not nonexistent. Granted, many of these visits have resulted in number 1 on the expected list, but I'd rather be poor with good friends than rich with television and ramen noodles as my only companions.
4) I have a boyfriend, a genuine shocker for those who know my life history. He is the best.
5) I am once again sleeping in a twin bed.

I tried to bring some wit into those lists, because I don't think today's entry is particularly funny. I'm also not sure anything I've written thus far is great fodder for a television show, movie or novel. And I don't have any thought-provoking observations to throw out there, but it's been interesting to reflect on how I thought things would be and how they are.

Things never turn out quite the way I plan them, and being reminded of that in an exercise like this helps me to remember that my current plans probably won't either. (Two years here, followed by a few years "somewhere fabulous," followed by a triumphant return to the Midwest, having earned the ability to decide what my paycheck will be and force people to pay it.)

But I suppose that's the next adventure. Since I plan to keep this blog forever (even post rich and famousness), I'll do my best to post an entry like this every May 24. I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat.