COLUMN: Apartment life is a getaway
After hauling a queen size bed, a fish tank, home to a baby Sulcata tortoise, lamps, a desk and the rest of my life into my new apartment, I sit on my leather couch with a cool glass of Mountain Dew and a smile. I am now the proud renter of my first apartment with two of my best friends.
I am thrown into a new world where I have my own kitchen space, not just a cabinet in a kitchenette, I have a bedroom all to myself and I have a bathroom with not just one shower, but two, and one of them is combined with a bathtub. I am living the dream.
As much as I enjoyed my experiences that came with dorm life, I was happy to find my own space. With no set quiet hours, just the ones we create; no floor meetings, just meeting around the coffee table and (best of all) pets are allowed. So that means my baby Tank (the Sulcata) is able to be with me once again.
Although I now have to cook my own meals, wash a lot more dishes and clean a larger room, I wouldn’t want to go back to paying an extra couple thousand dollars for those things to be catered to for me.
Why?
It’s the whole idea of moving off campus and getting away. Sure, it’s only five minutes outside of campus, but it just makes me feel like an adult and not just another college kid living in the “residential communities” a.k.a. dorms.
I had wonderful experiences in the dorms. That’s where I met my now current roommates, and I gained a lot of knowledge and experiences that I otherwise would have missed out on if I wouldn’t have lived there for two years. I am still having great new experiences and meeting new people all while living 9.2 miles (according to Google Maps) away from campus.
I will still be a mentor and a student. I will still volunteer and attend events. I will still attend classes and make it there on time, but I will be able to get away from it all at the end of the day.
So I will multi-task, sitting cross legged on that leather couch, watching Big Bang Theory and typing my papers while waiting for the timer to go off and tell me that my first batch of apartment-made cookies are done. Finally feeling like I have a space that is all my own.
