Since my last journal entry I've decided to take a break from school for a semester and live in the adult world...Here are my thoughts so far.

1) Workforce > School.

Why? It's practical. What I learn there, I use everyday, much the contrary to school. I go, put in my hours, get paid, come home and have time to myself to do what I want. No homework, no extra time at home working. It fits my belief that I work to live, not live to work, which is how I felt in school, that I was having to live to do that shitty work which I completely don't use.

My job isn't anything special, but it pays the bills and I have some money left from time to time to spend or save or whatever I want to do.

Do I plan to go back to school? Yes. But only as a part-time student. I'm going to slow down with it from what I was trying to do, live life, and take it a bit at a time rather than overloading myself to try and rush through school.

2) Bosses suck.

That's the main reason I decided for sure that I will go back to school. I have a hard time being a subordinate to another person. A very, very hard time. So I now have a reason to go get my degree and hopefully one day be in a position to run my own business/whatever I may work as.

3) Location.

I love where I live. It's a great place, and a nice change from the middle-of-nowhere bullshit town I grew up in down in the delta of Arkansas. However, if there's one draw back, its that its completely across the state from my family so I don't stay in contact as much as I should. I'll be going home soon for the first time in 4 months. With several members of my family steadily declining in health, I feel bad for not being around to help out with their care. However, no amount of guilt could make me give up the happiness I've found in my independent life.

4) Common sense.

I've quickly learned that this is your best friend in adult life. While it means little in the classroom where your academic abilities are more valued, real life requires the use of common sense. Which I value highly over academics any day. Who cares if you can solve a three part integral if you can't figure out how to set up a camping tent without instructions.

5) Bachelor life.

The one thing I miss about school is that I was constantly surrrounded by friends and going out to do things. Now that I live with just one friend of mine sharing an apartment, I hardly go out at all except to work or the store when I have to. I need to reclaim my social life and stop playing games/watching TV so much. I need to reclaim the feeling of having women in my day to day life again...Maybe even find one I can be serious about long-term.


Well, that about sums up my 4 month overview of my current experiences with the real world.

Also, yes, I suck and still haven't gotten Photoshop on my Mac yet. So I still haven't really been doing much work in that field. However, I have finally started to do another sketch to kill time, since I've run myself dry on other media for awhile. The next one will be Nagisa from Clannad.

Speaking of Clannad, I'm still sad after watching ~After Story~. Its an amazing experience, and easily my favorite show of all time now. It presents the emotions of the characters in such amazing quality through great voice acting and storyline along with top-notch animation to create an experience of epic proportions. It's the first show thats really touched me like that in years. Even the Notebook which I used to have to watch with an ex of mine couldn't budge my emotion, but Clannad had me laughing and crying and laughing while I was crying. It was everything I'd hoped for and more. I strongly suggest it to anyone who doesn't think they're "too mature" or "too normal" for anime/cartoons to give it a whirl.

- Nick