Well, guys, I’ve finally done it! Thursday night I submitted my FINAL final exam. Friday morning, I slept in until nine and woke up to the start of a new chapter in my life. No more final exams, no more homework, no more sleepless nights, no more studying for tests, and no more college!

For those of you who have been following along with my college experience the last two years, you’ll know that when I say ‘I’m done with college’, I don’t mean that I graduated with a degree. For those who are new to my blog, let me explain further.

I didn’t go to college to get a degree. I also didn’t go to college to get good grades. And I certainly didn’t go to college so that I could party! I went to college to study business and take any classes I thought I would need to run a farm. (I also went to college because my father had given me two years of free college thanks to the U.S. Army. But sure, I went to ‘learn’.) Today, my two years of college are up, and I can no longer attend college for free. So in my eyes, I’m finally FREE!!!!!

These past two years, I have learned all that I need to from college (and then some). I have not only learned about Businesses, but I have learned about Environmental and Plant Sciences, Math, English, Sociology, and even some basic (and not so basic) car Mechanics! I have learned lessons outside of the classroom as well, such as how to procrastinate until the last second, how to write a seven-page paper in three hours, and how you can get out of World Religion class by saying that it’s against your religion to come to class today! Yay for learning!

I’m not even sad that college is over, I’m honestly just relieved to be done! I feel like I should be sad to leave my college, but the only thing that I’m sad about right now is that I am not sure what to do next!

I have always had a goal in life. Something to chase and that keeps me going on those dark days. When I got back to Michigan, my goal was to go to college. Then, while I was staying at my grandmother’s house going to college, my goal was to move out! For the longest time, my goal has been to find my future farm. I have had plenty of mini-goals to help me reach my main goal of buying a farm. Such as saving for a house, building up my credit score, getting a job to help me save money, learning about how to run a business (at college), etc. Realistic enough goals, right?

Now, however, I have no job and no college to distract me from the sad reality of my life. I’ve had to put my house hunting on hold while I finished college and looked for a new job, but now that college is over, I have nothing. I wanted to jump right into an agriculture job, but no farms in the area will be hiring until Spring. Even then, most of the farms around here are small family-owned farms that don’t need farmhands!

In the meantime, while I don’t have anything to do, I’ve been distracting myself (and bringing in a small income) with craft fairs! Those don’t bring in much money, but I’ve met some truly interesting people at these craft fairs who are all too willing to chat with me about where to find future craft shows and how they run their small businesses.

With my new free time, I have also been making some Winter goodies for some of my favorite shop owners around town. Just recently, I’ve made puppy chow, fudge, and no-bake cookies to give out to people! (Recipes can be found on my blog under recipes or click the links above!)

Oh yeah, and since I am doing an update post about college, I should mention that I was also in a Christmas parade thanks to my college! One of my friends at college happens to have an Uncle on the parade comity, and she also managed to get us invited onto our college’s float for the town’s Christmas Parade. It was truly the highlight of my month to be in a Christmas parade, on a float, right behind our school mascot, and I am forever grateful to my friend for volunteering us for it.

So yeah, a lot has been going on this month. Christmas cards are sent, winter goodies are delivered, I made some money at a few local craft fairs, I was in a parade, and I finally finished college!

Now it’s time for a new chapter in my life, and I’m not sure what the chapter is going to be about, or how to start it. However, writing this blog post seemed like a pretty good place to start, so maybe we can consider this as the forward to this new chapter! I can only hope that you guys will be with me through this crazy long journey in finding my future farm and starting my homestead. In the meantime, I have goals to make!

I would love to hear about your goals for the new year in the comments! (Maybe it will help me come up with a game plan for myself in the process…) What is your main goal for the year and how do you plan to accomplish it?!? COMMENT BELOW!

As always, smile, have an amazing day, and remember that dreams don’t always happen overnight. ❤