The Simple Things

It is the simple pleasures in life that make it worth living. Sunday, I had a nice long conversation with my cousin, Lea, on the phone. We were discussing our futures, and what we want most out of life. It's obvious that we've managed to grow up a bit, compared to how we used to talk at our old sleep overs. For once, the first thing mentioned was not "I want a good looking husband with a good job." Shockingly, that was the last thing brought up. We agreed on pretty much everything. At the moment we both want decent paying jobs in fields that we love. I would be a school psychologist, and she would be working in a nice nursing home. We both want to move closer to the shore, but we no longer feel that we have to live right on the beach in a huge home with a lot of land. Instead we just want a little condo, one like the one we stayed at this summer would be ideal: 3 bedrooms, a living room/dinning room, kitchen, and a bathroom. That's it, that's all we need, the nifty loft thing that place had was cool, but not a necessity. The best thing about a condo like that, is that there would be no yard work, but you'd still have a pool. That's what would suck about the huge house with a ton of land: a lot of yard work, and a hell of a lot of cleaning. We wouldn't actually want to be on the coast anymore. That would make the cost of living there sky rocket. We'd just want to be a decent drive away. We're thinking 45 minutes away from it maximum, that's how long we have to drive to get to the mall or a decent movie theater now. We even joked about moving into the perfect little condo together, then getting a nice tank of salt water fish and a cat or two. Who knows? Maybe someday we will actually do that, after we've both got enough money set aside to risk leaving home. This led to us joking about becoming old cat ladies, since neither of us have even come close to finding a guy who would be a good match for us yet.

We came to some interesting conclusions about guys though. First of all, neither of us dream of having the super hot hunk anymore. We wouldn't feel fully comfortable with a total hottie anymore, especially with how introverted, and not entirely social we are. He'd be bound to cheat on us, if he were capable of it. Second, we don't care much about the pay check anymore. We want him to work and make money, but we a re two independent women. We'd want to be able to support ourselves. Finally, I shocked myself by realizing that as many times as I've said, "I'll never marry a guy like dad who's away half the time", that's actually the type of guy who'd be ideal for both of us. We're nice, friendly girls, and we aren't totally anti-social. However, we both like our space, and like to be alone at times. We need men who would actually leave once in a while: a truck driver, pilot, member of the armed forces, business man, etc. Basically the perfect guy went from the rich, well built, pampering, dream boat, to being a nice, humorous, attractive (as in, he takes care of himself and dresses decently), trusting, and able to trust guy who leaves the house for a few nights every now and then. A nice, sweet, caring nerd would be perfect for me.

It's kind of sad that we went from wanting everything, to wanting very little actually. I went from wanting to be a rich psychiatrist, with a huge house on the beach, a pool, a great car, and a hunk of a husband, to wanting to be a decently paid school psychologist, with a nice cozy little condo, a nice Jetta, and a sweet nerd of a husband (if I get married at all). But that's how life goes, you live, you learn, and your goals and dreams hopefully change. If I still wanted the same things now as a sophomore in college, as I did when I was a sophomore in high school, I'd be a bit concerned about myself.

I'm looking forward to my cute little condo though, it's not that far out of reach. 2 more years of undergrad work, 1 year of grad work, maybe a year long internship, and I'm there. That's only 4 more years. And we all know how quickly 4 years can pass by.