300!

Yesterday I hit probably the last milestone of my movie challenge: 300 movies!

As I hit the big 3-0-0, I wanted to post something a little more personal. When I started this challenge in January, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I thought I could end each day with popcorn and a glass of wine while I sit back and enjoy a movie. I was so wrong. 

This endeavor has taken so much time from my life (I'm in the midst of calculating exactly how much time right now). There are times that I regret it. Times where I'm almost an hour into a terrible movie and think, 'If I never finish this movie, nobody would know.' Times where I let myself get behind because it was just all too much. But the strange thing is, it kind of saved me.

This year, I started off as a broke college student who had to move back in with her parents. I just came off the high of graduation and was on my way to an internship. Through my internship, I had a couple of side jobs to make up for the unpaid internship I needed to get my degree. With a stroke of luck, I landed a promotion to full-time temporary. Then, in September, I had to say goodbye to the job I loved and had grown accustomed to. Now, I'm a seasonal Target employee and a prospective grad student with a Bachelor's and about 50 rejection emails from hiring managers all over Texas. All within less than a year.

With the crazy amount of change I'm going through, my movies are the only thing that stayed consistent. The only thing I knew I could count on at least once a day. I'm slowly starting to realize how much I've grown to love the act of watching a movie, the diversity in experience and consistency in ritual.

It's comforting to know that no matter what changes I go through next year, at least I'll always have my movies.