Zach Baker realizes that life on your own after college isn't quite the orgy of fun he thought it would be.
By Zack Baker
210 west Writer [send email]
Living on your own can produce some interesting decisions. Three months into my new job I am living by myself and, in many ways, my life does not even closely resemble the one I enjoyed five months ago.
I have discovered many new things though, basically in an attempt to keep things interesting. In an attempt to find normalcy, I have also had to make a few changes in my day to day life.
Eating: In college, I relied on school food and fast food to survive. Somewhat surprisingly, I am still alive. Now, I have no meal plan and I don’t cook. So basically, Totino’s frozen Pizza stock has doubled because of me. I live by a simple Creed: If it’s cheap and if it’s frozen, it’s a meal that I have chosen.
(Did I mention I have become even more lame since leaving college?)
Sleeping: In college, sleep was something you did in the middle of the morning, while sleeping through a psychology lecture. In the real world, it’s something you do just after 9 p.m. When you work at an afternoon paper, you have to get up around five in the morning. I didn’t even know there WAS a 5 a.m. until three months ago.
Entertainment: There are no record stores in the town that I live in, and the nearest Best Buy is 45 minutes away. Now, instead of shopping at the Super K down the street (where all the middle schoolers hang out), I do most of my entertainment shopping on Amazon.
I think it’s almost too easy. I have stuff showing up in my mailbox I don’t even remember ordering. This creates an almost Christmas-like Euphoria for me.
I go stumbling down the steps screaming “WHAT DID I GET? WHAT DID I GET?”
Neighbors: The hot drunk girl with a pierced naval in college has been replaced by a sea of characters. One day, a woman in her 40's screamed obsenities at me for coming up my steps too loud. I nearly replied “It’s not even quiet hours!,” before remembering where I was. Seemingly, this Janet Reno-esque woman has taken it upon herself to act as the RA for the apartment. Which is fine, except that her screaming seemed to contradict her point. She ticked me off, but I did relish the thought that it’s good to not be her.
Thing is, you still get reprimanded, just as you would in the dorms, but it’s from the other tenants. My friend (up to visit from Cleveland) had a note on his car accusing him of being reckless and drunk, just because he didn’t park well. Suddenly, getting a knock on the door for playing my music too loud (as it happened in college) doesn’t seem so bad.
Then there’s the job, but it’s writing, so I like it. Writing has become a sort of salvation of me, in the midst of all these changes that have occurred.
I’d say that life gets different when you leave, but I’m sure we all know that.
Maybe the world really is as wild as Cat Stevens said. Or maybe I am just an unreasonable man living in unreasonable times.
And it’s only been four months.