I'm feeling like a star, you can't stop my shine. I'm loving cloud nine, my head's in the sky

You're probably scratching your head about the title of today's blog. If you don't follow current music, then you probably won't recognize the lyrics or have any idea who Jason Derulo is. He is a fairly new music artist, and his current hit that's out right at this minue is called Ridin Solo. In the song, he talks about how great he feels, having moved on from a bad breakup with a girlfriend. He tells her in the song, that he's moved past the pain of being hurt, and tells her that he doesn't want her back. These particular lyrics, "I'm feeling like a star, you can't stop my shine. I'm loving cloud nine, my head's in the sky," sum up how I have been feeling for the past week! Tonight I attended the wedding of a friend/co-worker from this past school year. Naturally, the entire group of teachers from school all sat together at the reception. Everyone seemed to know about my impending move. Everyone seemed excited for me, which made me even more excited! There is another line in the song that says, "I'm living life like I'm free." Some of you may know that this is not the first time I said I was moving to Spain. I canceled plans earlier in the spring and even turned down a job at the end of June. But when this opportunity presented itself, it was too good to be true. I've realized in the past year that I have to live life like I'm free. Everyday, it seems like I hear of someone else who has had a child or gotten married. I don't want you to think that I am judging people on their decisions, because I'm not at all. All I'm saying is that life isn't for me at the moment. I really am riding solo. I based this decision on what I wanted. Not what anyone else wanted or said I should do. I have no reason not to go to Spain. Several people in the past few days have told me that they wished they waited before they settled down to do what I'm doing. The fact that I've based this decision solely on what I want, makes it even sweeter. In order to get the most out of life, you feally must live life like you're free. What if we went through life with the old ball and chain? Or what if we based our decisions on what was expected of us. I've been guilty of doing that, and let me tell you, I was MISERABLE. For so long, I worried about pleasing other people and not myself. I woke up one morning and realized that I didn't know myself at all. The first time I went to Spain, I had a rough first two weeks. I had no support system and I was on my own. I had never been in a situation before where I was truly by myself. But that situation was one that I had to go through in order to be where I am to day. I had to first love myself before anyone else. And once I started doing that, then I was able to learn what I really wanted out of life. By any means am I saying that I'm just going to saunter through life. I'm not. I know eventually I will have to settle down with a career. Being almost 25, I'm stuck in the in-between stage. A quarterlife crisis, if you will. And I've finally broken through all of the heartache and pain I went through with that time of my life. I truly am feeling like a star and loving my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. The first verse of the song that I've been referring to starts out by saying, "Finally doing me and it feels so right". Touche to that, Jason Derulo! Just try it for a day and live your life like you're free.