In the past month I have made the transition from being a student and dependent on mom and dad for most of life's necessities to becoming a "real person." Generally speaking, it has been an overwhelmingly smooth transition. I honestly don't think things could be working out a whole lot better right now. Early this spring, I (somewhat randomly) decided that my post-graduation plans involved moving to Chicago. I didn't have any concrete plans, job offers, or any reason to go, I just felt like that was the place to go. I'd never lived in a big city before and my philosophy was "I'm 22, unmarried, no career at home, if I don't do something like this now...I never will."

...and things pretty much went my way. I had a friend who wanted to move up here with me and split rent and we got an extremely good deal on a place to live in the Lakeview/Wrigleyville area. I landed one "pay rent" job at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Then while I was re-training there I landed a career-type job as a marketing coordinator with Hinda Incentives, a job opening that basically popped up overnight with the hiring process happening almost as quick. My family backed me up with my plans from the beginning, and even though the idea in itself was a bit crazy and gutsy to start, they never tried talking me out of it. To top it off I was (still am) dating a girl that was very supportive of the move and has never complained once about me moving away from her.

So....to sum it up...I have two jobs that I got pretty quickly in a slow economy, a roof over my head, a supportive family, beautiful girlfriend, friends from home that still keep in touch and several new friends here in the city as a result of running clubs and MissioDei (the church I attend here). Everything seems to be lining up almost perfectly at this point in my life (for now...hopefuly this blog doesn't jinx me).

Why title this blog "Why Bad Things Happen To Good People"? Seems kinda contradictory right?

It was all the bad things, closed doors, stressful events and other rough patches in life that over time eventually set me up for the good fortune that I've experienced the past few months. In the past it seemed like after I conquered one thing, some new difficult challenge shortly followed. My next post will elaborate a bit more on specifics. I figured saying it all in one post would be way too much.

The main thing I feel like I've learned so far is that bad stuff does happen and/or things won't go the way you planned, but not because life sucks. All the negative experiences could eventually prepare you to be ready for some really good stuff later on, even though it hardly ever seems like it at the time. It took  several years for me to finally see why things sometimes happen the way they do.

...to be continued...