I must begin my life anew.

Let me explain what I mean.

I've lived in the Midwest all of my life (although my family's well-traveled); I grew up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and I go to school in Indiana. Now my parents have decided, now that they are both retired and my sister has graduated from high school, that it's time to do what they've talked about for years and move to Seattle, where they can be closer to my brother and his family and take advantage of what is admittedly a spectacular city.

That's all well and good for them, but this creates several problems for me and my sister, the first and foremost of which is that while we're still close enough to home to go back for a visit...we kind of can't. I mean, I could go back to Cape Girardeau and stay with a friend for a few days, but my house? The one I've lived in all of my life? Empty, locked, off-limits, waiting patiently for a potential buyer. Somehow, it's not the same.

Also: unless by some miracle the parentals find her a home with someone we know, I will most likely never see my cat again. We've had her since I was maybe five or six; she's got to be honing in on sixteen years or so now, but Molasses is a tough old bird. But since my brother is highly allergic to cats, my parents can't take her with them to Seattle. My apartment at school doesn't allow any pets that aren't fish, so my taking her was out of the question, and my sister, of course, lives in a dorm. So when it was goodbye to my old house, it was also goodbye to good old Molasses.

Complicating matters further, but an inevitable part of anyone's life, is the fact that nothing with my friends is certain anymore. The youngest of them are going off to college as I speak, and the older ones, like me, are getting into their senior year and gearing up for internships, graduation, and proper employment if all goes well. Not all of them will be coming back to Cape anytime soon, and who knows when, if ever, we will all be in the same place again even long enough for a trip to Denny's?

In short, my life as I've known it ever since high school is swiftly falling to pieces and there's nothing I can do about it. So, this will hopefully be the chronicle of a year in which I get my shit together and deal with these changes. I might have to get some serious counseling to do it, since I apparently deal with big change like a child with its hands over its ears, but I will do it.

Hey, at least I know I have a problem.