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belly, jeremiah, and conrad in the kitchen in the summer i turned pretty season 2
belly, jeremiah, and conrad in the kitchen in the summer i turned pretty season 2
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Life > Experiences

Sophomore Year and the Big A- Apartment

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CU Boulder chapter.

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. 

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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. 

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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. 

Eera Vedavyas

CU Boulder '26

Eera Vedavyas is the Editor-in-Chief and contributing writer at the Her Campus Chapter at the University of Colorado Boulder. As the Editor-in-Chief, she oversees a team of a team of seven editorial assistants and 70+ contributing writers, as well as overseeing all editing duties, including reviewing other members articles and leading writing workshops, publishing articles for the chapter, training new editors, and work with HC Headquarters to report HCCU points. She helps prepare material for and co-runs weekly chapter meetings, collaborating with the rest of the Senior Executive team. Beyond Her Campus, Eera is a junior at CU Boulder studying Psychology with a minors in Business, Creative Technology & Design, and Public Health. In the future, she hopes to apply her knowledge in an interdisciplinary approach, hoping to design products that help people live better lives. In her free time, she enjoys reading and creative writing, learning how to cook, discovering new music, playing video games, spending time with friends, learning how to DJ. and exploring new places.