All Grown Up

Well, not quite yet. There are actually quite a few steps for me to take before getting there (like stop staying up all night and sleeping all day).
Recently though, one of those big steps refuses to stop entertainging my thoughts, and I bet it isn't the one that you think... I want to buy a house. Okay, maybe not a house exactly, but investing in something that will be mine.
I've been looking at a ridiculous amount of apartments in Orlando, and while there are a few to which I say "I can DEFINITELY see myself living here,'' most of them lack something to be desired. Since I am going to be paying rent anyways, why not pay a mortgage instead of flushing hard earned money down the drain.
There are a few downfalls to my big scheme, perhaps the biggest being the most trivial. I am still really young (I still can't even buy alcohol for myself). There's so many uncartainties that I feel I can't answer at this age. I don't know if in 10 years (hopefully I am married) I will want to live in some trendy little condo near downtown Orlando, maybe I'll want to raise my family in Alaska (as long as Sarah Palin is Govenor, hell would have to freeze over first). Maybe my husband will get some great job offer and we have a chance to buy my dream cottage along the Mediterranean Ocean, what am i going to do with some place in Orlando? Better yet, what if i get some sort of dream job, and I have to move my family to my dream cottage somewhere else in the world? What if in 10 years I look back and decide that buying a home at 20 was the worst thing i could have possibly done?
I do realize that my what if's are rather large, but so are my dreams (I am sure that they are, I just still have to outline them...). I've made enough mistakes already, I know I am bound to make a few more, but I don't want to add such a huge one yet. Which, in all honesty is probably the reason I can't decide on a career. How can I be thinking about making such a HUGE purchase before I even know what I want to do with the rest of my life? This obviously will require a TON of prayer and rumination (one of the answers on Cash Cab the other night that no one else in the house knew, but I TOTALLY did).
There are a lot of good things about looking into buying though. For one, researching buying a house this early will put me one step ahead down the line when it definitely is time to buy. Another thing, as Sandra Rinomato (or someone on HGTV) would say, investing in property is never a bad choice. Hmmm... on second thought it could have been Donald Trump that said that. Because the property would be mine, I could do WHATEVER I wanted to with the place. Paint everything - check. Install tiles that look like hardwood flooring -check, check. Put up crown molding - triple check. Get a really pretty claw foot tub for my master bath - che... well, you get the point. Whatever I wanted to do I could. Downside to that is, if I ever decide to sell then I might not see all my money come back to me. Then again, someone else on HGTV said just today ''You got to make the space yours. Don't worry too much about seeing a return on all your investments. If there is something you really want, go for it." Possible life lesson too? I think so mon amis!!!
Clearly, this process requires more than finances. A lot of mental effort goes into buying a home as well. I am point in case.
Well it's been a long day. Nightey night yall.