Beginning to let go of mom's hand

For those of you who don't know me, although I have no idea why you'd be reading this...I'm really not that interesting!, I've been attached to my mother's hip since I was born. Even to this day, she continues to do far too much for me: making my phone calls, running my errands, making my appointments, chauffeuring me places, picking out my outfits, talking me through problems and much more. And for that reason, I decided I wanted to take my time abroad as an opportunity to become more independent. However, with so much going on, London has definitely been a challenge so far.

Going to college so far away from home, which many people were sure I would never survive, slowly acclimated me to life on my own. I learned to fend for myself a little more: running my own errands, cooking my own meals (although Barb preferred picking up my meals), "doing" my own laundry, putting away my clothes, making my own bed...life at home was prettty easy. While I did do all these things, some of them even better than my mom, cooking & folding at least, I wouldn't say I did them without help. There are constant phone calls home to ask endless questions and solve my problems, and make my appointments for when I come home for break.

However, at school, things were made easier by one-stop-shops where I can find anything and everything I might want and need. London, on the other hand, has no such thing. I'm quickly learning to appreciate Target for its ingeniousness, a place where you can literally find just about anything. London on the other hand, has no such thing. I find myself wandering into a million different shops looking for the same thing and sometimes have no idea where I can even find something. Yesterday, freak out number 3209823 occurred: the flowers stained my sweater. Do you have any idea how hard it is to figure out how to deal with that? I googled and went to a dry cleaner, which was boarded up. I had to go into 3 different stores looking for stain stick remover. Tried using the remover, which failed. Then resigned when I heard the boys in my building found a dry cleaner, I dropped the sweater off this morning.

So I think after almost 2 weeks of being in London, I'm slowly beginning to become more independent. Even took the tube all by myself yesterday!