Similar to many sophomores, my friends and I signed a lease to a place we now call home. The thought of having a place we could call our own, where we were in charge of decorating and cooking was exciting. Having an apartment was a sign we were growing up and becoming adults. After living there for a little less than a month, I’ve realized that maybe it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
For starters, I severely underestimated how much work there is to do constantly. In the dorms, you didn’t really have to do dishes, and if you had to, maybe one or two. In an apartment, I feel like I’m always doing dishes. The dishwasher gets loaded, runs a cycle, then almost immediately, it gets filled up again. The chores never seem to end — there is always something that could be swept or wiped down. With a space bigger than a shoebox, there comes more space that can get dirty.
I also didn’t recognize the convenience of the dorms, especially when it came to hanging out with my friends. In the dorms, your friends were no more than a 5-minute walk away. In an apartment, however, you have to coordinate times and rides. As someone who lives a 10-minute drive away from my friends without my own car, it can be hard to see them often. Lucky for me, I have some awesome friends with cars who only complain a bit when they have to pick me up.
Apartment living also means that when things go haywire in the apartment, you’re responsible for fixing it. Within the three weeks I’ve been living here, I’ve already put in over five separate maintenance requests for things ranging from our extreme temperature shower to the hole in our wall. You and maintenance are like passing ships in the night, never around at the same time and hope that eventually you will have a shower that works and no hole in the wall where you sleep.
Living in an apartment hasn’t been all that bad, though. I (mostly) love being able to make my own tasty food, which definitely beats the dining hall any day of the week, and having an apartment means that you can also have pets roaming around and candles going at all times of the day. Although there are some downsides to living in an apartment, I would choose this over the dorms every time. The comfort of having my own place where I can exist freely is way better than a shoebox.