Making Decisions

Living independently includes a lot of things that you have to make decisions about and understand — not just where you want to live and who you want to live with. It can include:

• Knowing how to be safe at home
• Understanding how to take care of yourself
• Knowing what to do in an emergency
• Understanding how to take care of your own place (like cleaning, doing laundry, fixing things when they break)
• How to shop for food (very important) and then how to cook it (microwaves can come in handy here!)
• Taking care of your finances and paying bills
• How to get around using transportation like a car, bus, taxi, bike, skateboard, or walking

Does this sound overwhelming? Well, it can be. But if you start thinking about these things and learning how to do them before you want to live on your own, it won’t be such a big deal. That’s what life planning is all about — planning for LIFE.