A week ago, I moved into a new place. I now live in a tiny little one room cabin on my neighbor’s 5 acres and I am just so happy about it. When I walked into the cabin for the first time, I nearly cried out of relief and happiness because it has been over a year since I had a space and stable living situation. For the first time in over a year, I have a permanent place to call my own, a place where I feel safe and calm.

I’m just so happy because splitting my time between either parents’ places was difficult and stressful. It started to destroy my relationships with my parents – once my mom got really upset and told me to leave and spend the night at my dad’s at like 9:30pm because I wouldn’t share my small sandwich with her. (I can’t even make that up…)

And honestly, I just do so much better when I have my own space and the ability to be alone if I need it. Being in public spaces and spending time with people (regardless of my relationship to the people I’m with) can be really stressful and overwhelming for me so having a space where I can shut off the rest of the world for a while so far has been really helpful.

I’m still trying to figure out what the future will hold for me but having the space to do that will be unbelievably wonderful. And the five acres I’m on is also home to a dog, a llama, three cats, four chickens, and maybe some chickens eventually. It’s just so wonderful to be around animals for such a big chunk of my life because animals have been some of the most consistent things in my life.

I know I won’t be in my hometown forever (or at least I hope not) but having this new space gives me hope for the future that everything will work out.