"Psychic."

This morning, I dropped my cousin, who is living with my family now, off at her church. On the way home after dropping her off, I counted (withing a 15 minute time period) six or seven squirrels in the road (dead, of course). It was a sad sight to behold. A couple of hours later, I sent a text to my cousin asking if she was ready to be picked up. She replied, telling me she had actually been in the middle of sending ME a text telling me that in fact, she was ready. I send one word as a response.

"Psychic."

After turning onto a back road in my neighborhood that would let me out onto the main road (117th Ave), I recalled the many, many squirrels from earlier. I thought to myself, "A squirrel's going to run out of this field to my right and I'm not going to be able to stop in time."

10 SECONDS LATER (maybe less than ten...)

A squirrel ran out of the field to my right and I wasn't able to stop in time.

Think again.

I was thinking I would update this blog more, but that obviously isn't happening at the moment. A little update on my life, I have decided that searching for a job this week wouldn't lead anywhere because I'm leaving next week for Florida. I don't want to get a call for an interview and be on the other side of the country. Maybe that's my way of procrastinating, but that's what I do.

I have my first story today. It is not a happy one. I'm not going to give any names, obviously. If you think you've got it bad, check this out.

A friend of mine does drugs and smokes weed. This friend has a girlfriend. This girlfriend is pregnant. This girlfriend STILL smokes weed, even with the baby. This girlfriend STILL does drugs, even with the baby. This girlfriend DOES NOT have a job. This friend DOES have a job (minimum wage). This girlfriend takes all of this friend's money and spends it on drugs and weed. This friend and his girlfriend are being evicted from their home due to lack of payments, which they would have if it weren't for their addictions. This friend steals food from his job in order to feed his girlfriend. This friend's dad, who has been in jail for some time, can only be released on parole if he stays with family. This friend is the only family he has in this area. This friend's dad cannot be around children. So this friend's baby (and by default, his girlfriend) would not be able to stay with him. He now has to choose between his father and his unborn child. This baby will not have a normal life.

If you think you've got it bad...

Think again.

Something Else

Along with stories that I've heard through the grapevine, I'm also going to be updating everybody on my own life, mostly on the "out in the real world for the first time" part of it.

I'm all set up for Clark College. I'll be taking a 5-credit College Trigonometry course, four days a week.

Tuition: $428.00
Fees: $33.75
Total: $461.75
Financial Aid: $0.00

So $461.75 for tuition and fees and that's just for one class. I really need to find a job. If anybody knows a place in The Couv that's hiring, please, let me know.

IN ADDITION, I had completely forgotten about books. The parents are helping me with those, thank god (not religious).

If you're going through anything related to this post, please feel free to share your story below. You CAN be anonymous! I forgot to mention this in the last/first post of this blog, but if you ever have a story to share, please do so!

...It Hits Hard.

The trickiest part of any project occurs in the beginning. I call it the how-do-we-start-this-thing-up stage. I suspect this project would start a little like this...

Hello.

My name is Aaron. I'm eighteen. That's all you need to know for now. Eighteen is the age (as hinted at in the title of this blog) 'when life hits.' Until recently, I lived my life without caring about the future. I never thought about college. Instead, I thought about how I was going to pass World Mythology. I never thought about getting a job. Instead, I thought about how boring and pointless my  Business Math appeared to be (least favorite class, not even sure what the correct name for it was).

I graduated this past June and a couple weeks later, "life hit." I needed to go to college. I needed money. I needed a job. I dealt with most of that. I'm enrolled in a community college and will be starting College Trig this September. I have money, thought most of it was spent during The Scorpions concert a week or so ago. I don't have a job, but I always say I'm going to apply somehwere, and I don't. So there's still that...

And then there's friends. Friends hold everything together. They keep you sane. They give you a reason to show up for school. Let's face it, if it weren't for our friends, most of us would skip out on school every chance we got. After graduation, everything changed in that department as well. As we all know, there are "friends" that we hang out with outside of school and then there are "friends" that we only see at school. After graduation, those "school-friends" are mostly gone, with the exception of sites like Facebook and Myspace and Twitter and the list goes on. That cuts your social interaction severely (at least it did for me, I'm not afraid to admit that). Then, soon enough, you realize that some of the "outside-friends" have changed. While some have changed for the better (got a job, living on their own, starting their life), others have changed for the worse (smoking pot, doing drugs, quitting school, lying to their friends, lying to you).

This blog has one purpose. I want to show what real life is. I want everybody to see what people go through. This blog will not be filled with my own life stories. That would be boring. This blog will be filled with the stories of other people (anonymous, of course). They will not necessarily be good stories, but they will be real, and I hope that is enough to spark your interest as a reader.

Most people that know me might not be surprised to hear the things I post on this blog; to hear the things I witness.

The others out there that think you know me will be surprised to hear about the people I call my friends, about the people I associate with and about the very real things that effect me everyday.

Then there are some people out there that have NO IDEA who I am, and that's okay. My name is Aaron and I'll be your tour guide for this little thing we like to call...

Life.

It's finally hitting...

...and it's hitting hard.