By Jemma Dooreleyers
My name is Jemma, I am a second-year journalism student at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto, and here is my living situation: I live in a one bedroom plus den apartment with two other people. I share a bedroom with my best friend Annabelle and our beds face each other. If I reach out far enough with my toes and she reaches out far enough with her toes, they touch.
Her alarm is “Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog. Sharing a wall with us is her boyfriend and our best friend, Jake. He doesn’t have a door, but he has a curtain. He lives in the den and only has about two feet of standing space in his room. He has the same alarm tone as me which can get confusing at times. Altogether, the apartment costs $2255 a month and we end up paying around $800 each when all is said and done with electricity and wi-fi.
There are three pros to this apartment, as Annabelle’s grandmother loves to say: location, location, location.
We share a corner with Yonge-Dundas Square. We are a 30 second walk to the subway station and a maximum of an 8 minute walk to anywhere on campus. We all get along super well and have dinner together almost every night. No one has thrown any ragers so far and all in all, there really is nothing to complain about.
However, between three second-year students who are stressed out all the time and incapable of establishing normal sleeping patterns, 911 square feet can get a little claustrophobic. There isn’t really any room to do what you would normally do if you had your own space. There is no leaving the peanut butter lid off because you know you are going to grab another spoonful. There is no creating masterpieces on the wall of the shower with your hair. And there is certainly no sleeping naked.
But a blessing came to me when I found out that my roommates were going home on the Friday before reading week and I was leaving the Saturday morning. A world of possibilities opened up to me; so many that I had no idea where to begin.
I stayed up until 2 a.m. so I could accomplish everything I’ve been meaning to do without bothering my roommates. Here’s what I got up to when I was home alone:
1. Played the same song over and over again on the communal Amazon Alexa and sang along at the top of my lungs (this lasted about an hour)
2. Watched myself in the mirror as I danced and sang to the Mamma Mia 2 soundtrack
3. Emptied the entire contents of my laundry basket all over our beds
4. Got McDonald’s through Uber Eats– I severely regret this decision but at least no one was there to judge me but myself
5. Watched eight episodes of The Good Place
6. Took my nasty oatmeal mason jar out of my backpack, a task I was too afraid to do before because I was afraid it was going to smell
7. Took a bath with a very intense bath bomb that I was afraid was going to stain the bathtub orange forever
8. Went on to scrub the bathtub naked to remove the stains
9. Cranked the air conditioning so I could put on this many layers
10. Ate some ice cream
11. And finally, went to bed naked with peace of mind