To be honest, when I started this project, I really didn't think the hardest part would be, uh, remembering that it exists. But somewhere between starting new classes, buying textbooks, and dealing with the ever-growing pressure to find housing for next year, it completely slipped my mind.
So here I am, on a it's-not-even-technically-Monday-anymore night, blogging my little heart out.
If you know me at all, which I'm assuming you do, you know that I'm in first year university right now. And as the thrill of completing my very first semester subsides, new stresses settle in, cozying up in my mind against the chilly January winds like little rodents nesting in walls.
First and foremost is finding a place to live. Most students, at least around here, leave residence after first year and stretch their wings, ganging up and going in together on 4 or 5 or 6 bedroom rental houses near campus. This should be a fun, exciting and adventurous sort of time, right? Well, it would be, if it wasn't for the cut-throat, fast-moving, need-to-sign-on-the-spot way the housing market moves here. Good houses are claimed within days of being advertised, and trying to juggle looking at ads, viewing houses, and regular schoolwork is proving to be immensely stressful. The older students caution us that all the good houses will be gone by the end of January, and it all feels like way too much.
I know this sort of thing is to be expected. Venturing out into the adult world is not something anyone has ever called easy. And I know this is only a small step on the path to living in the Actual Real World. But making these kind of decisions, managing money, signing leases - still super scary!
These feelings are not helped by the decision my parents made to spend the rest of the winter in a locale far more tropical than Ontario. Sure, I'm at school anyways, so it shouldn't matter if they're out of the country, but it turns out it's a whole lot easier to miss home when home is, well, home.
Not being able to text or call them whenever I need to has really made me realize how much I rely on them. Not to take a detour into Sappyville or anything.
It makes for a funny mix: excitement and apprehension about living "on my own", finally leaving home, intertwined with the feeling that home isn't always going to be home. That the life, the place the people you leave behind do not sit there while you are gone, frozen like kids playing freeze-tag, ready to immediately start running again when that magic person returns, skidding across the gym floor to free them.
In a few months, my friends and I will have a house. True, it will be rented, and also true, we will probably all spend the summer back home with our families anyways, but it is an unavoidable fact that our concept of home, one of the most essential, unchanging things of the past 18 years, is beginning to change.
So that's a thing now.
Goodnight, bloglings
So, so true. This is a really scary time, but can also be really exciting! Have fun looking at houses, but just be careful! We got a great 4 bedroom apartment for a not astronomical amount of money; but we had our share of rough times. (Particularly the first year. Roommates are hard!) We almost had another house that would have been horrible, because we were worried about getting the place we wanted. We had to compromise; we had wanted a 3 bedroom and went with a 4 because our 3 disappeared. Along that note, don't forget about apartments! I'm not sure, never having been to where you are, how apartments go but they can be big and spacious and nice! Just make a list of questions before going out (my list was 2 pages...) (your university should have a list somewhere, especially if you're in res right now, and also you obviously have common sense so some will come from that), and ask them, and make these landlords tell you! If they don't know what you're talking about, or what they're talking about, and they just shove a paper in your face, don't let them do that! If the people currently living there are in the house when you visit (awkward, I know), ask them questions about utilities, laundry, all that stuff. (If they'll talk to you and don't hide in their room, like I totally wanted to when people were viewing our apartment.) Just have fun, and don't stress to the point of curling into a ball! You will be fine; places always come up, and they're not all hellholes. <3
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