addiction

I've been spending the summer of 2010 in State College, Pennsylvania and it's more than beautiful. The streets are less crowded, and it's actually possible to find parking spots downtown on Friday nights. It's sunny almost everyday and the tone of the town is calm and relaxed.

This college town is all about the hustle-and-bustle during the school year, but in these sweet summer months, the busy activity of the average student is almost non-existent, including my own. I no longer have an overload of classes and countless meetings, review sessions and group project meetings. The extra free time is more than enjoyable, and I cannot help but to be painfully aware that this is the last free summer of my life. God willing, I will graduate next May with the promise of some type of employment and suddenly, lazy summers and months of endless relaxation and sun will be a memory as distant as grade-school recess.

But that's not what this post is about, I'll save the sappy summer reminiscing for August.

This about what has happened since the summer has started. I've developed a new addiction, one that has occasionally come and gone quietly through different life phases and has always been semi-present throughout the years, but never has it held its grip so firmly on me as it has over the past 6 weeks.

What, you may ask is this clawing addiction? It's not simple or easy for me to say, but the truth is, I am deeply addicted to reality television.

The phases of this addiction are no different than any other kinds.

First there was fall, the happening, the birth of the addiction. Casually indulging in its joy and entertainment without realizing the implications until I was already drowning in it's captivity. Then there was the stage of denial, telling myself that although I was re-scheduling and re-prioritizing  my life to feed my addiction, I really didn't think that it was a problem. "It's just because I have a lot of extra free time, it's summer," were words I have repeated to myself to justify my actions rectify my dignity. Then, my friends started noticing, saying things like "I love that you are caught up on every show!" and "AH! I didn't know you watched that too! what did you think of last week's episode?!" that's when I knew I was in deep.

The Bachelorette, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, The Real Housewives of New York, The Real World, Say Yes to the Dress and Tacky House (along with every show on the food network), just to name a few. 

I know that up is the only way to go from here. I also know that, like curing other addictions, I need to want the change, not just talk about it. But I'm not there yet. Until then, or until the first week of classes start, I will continue to be hulu's most loyal site visitor and the girl who can lend her opinion to almost any reality-television themed conversation.