For the majority of students at the University, second year means the chance to experience apartment living. Though we sign our apartment leases as early as September of first year, second year comes and goes more quickly than we would like to accept. When my friends and I signed our lease the third week of our first year, we had no idea if our situation would work out — would we even be friends in year? As second year comes to a close, however, the thought of moving out is bittersweet — apartment life has taught us so much, from responsibility to teamwork to “adulting.”
Before second year, the only concept I had of what it’s like to live in an apartment came from one of my favorite TV shows, “Friends.” I figured that Grit Coffee would be our Central Perk and that our apartment would be just like Monica and Rachel’s NYC apartment — minus the purple walls and “ugly naked man” across the way. After a few failed attempts to make friends with the guys next door, however, we realized that we might not have our Joey and Chandler. Similarly, after a few awkward instances with strangers stumbling into our apartment, we also realized that we couldn’t leave our door unlocked, as all the characters in “Friends” so often do. With a few minor adjustments that took us from sitcom to reality, we began what would become one of the best and most formative experience of our lives.
Before anything else, the first thing we learned was that our apartment was not going to clean itself. Needless to say, we were working with a lot more square footage than a dorm room, and after the first weekend of hosting friends — and friends of friends — it showed. As any students living in apartments would know, there’s nothing quite like “sticky floor syndrome” — no matter how many times you scrub the linoleum floor after having people over, it will never be the same.
We quickly developed a system for keeping the common area tidy — do your own dishes immediately and load them in the dishwasher, actually take the trash out if the bag is full, wipe the counter of any crumbs after cooking, etc. Though these tasks seem to be a given, it took a few weeks for us to realize that we were truly on our own and responsible for the upkeep of a property. Adulting 101.
Another aspect of apartment life that we learned was the importance of forming a positive relationship with maintenance. Even though we are some handy girls, there are certain things we cannot fix without professional help. I was surprised at how many things needed maintenance throughout the year — we had clogged sinks, burnt out light bulbs, broken toilet handles and blaring smoke detectors that would not shut off after an incident in the kitchen with some chicken fajitas.
The first time we put in a maintenance request, we learned that you can never be quite sure when workers will arrive. One early morning when my apartment mate and I were studying in our pajamas at the kitchen table, maintenance showed up to fix our ceiling fan, and we made small talk with Joe over coffee while he did his work. When our washing machine broke three consecutive weeks in a row and maintenance had to haul the new models up and down four flights of stairs, I was glad we had established a positive relationship with them. They began calling us “the washing machine girls,” and by the third machine failure, we were relieved to know it was an issue with the model, not our laundry habits.
In times of struggle — like the washing machine instance — apartments become a community. I’ve run across the hall and up and down our building multiple times to use a neighbor’s washing machine, vacuum or mop. Part of the reason why apartments are so fun is because everyone is so conveniently close, and visiting friends in different units or complexes is so easy. Having the space and ability to invite people over for dinner, letting locked-out friends sleep on your sofa or congregating in the living room to share funny stories after a night out brings everyone so much closer. The best part about having an apartment is getting to share it with others, and it’s in sharing it that friends become family and and an apartment becomes a home.
As second year comes to an end and we pack up our belongings to settle into our next housing arrangements, we must say goodbye to the place that taught us so much over the course of 10 months. It feels like just yesterday that my apartment mates and I were hauling up decorations and kitchen supplies and furniture — it’s hard to forget with four flights of stairs. It’s bittersweet to pack up a portion of our lives that was so formative, but we move forward with so much more knowledge and life experience because of the time we spent here.
In our apartment, we learned the values of friendship, the cost of electricity and the versatile uses of a George Foreman Grill. We learned that paper towels go way more quickly than any of us could have ever imagined, that there’s a big difference between setting the temperature to 72 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit and that taking the time to fill up the Brita after pouring a glass of water goes a long way with everyone else in the apartment. We learned how to be independent adults, how to take responsibility for broken tables and how to support one another in times of need. We may not quite be Phoebe, Monica and Rachel, but our time as second-years in this apartment has truly shown us what it means to be friends — I’ll be there for you, ‘cause you’re there for me too.
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