Well, I’m in for round two of apartment hunting. Finding a place to live is such a pain- especially when you don’t live in the city you’re looking in! It’s so time-consuming, frustrating, decision-laden, stressful, and fluke-y!
I’m really glad that I’ve already had some experience living on my own in both Residence and also in an off campus house. It’s nice to have some grasp of the process as well as thoughts on things I would like to try to avoid (e.g. carpeting, unsafe area, poor heating/cooling, etc.) and things I would like to look for (chill roommate, clean place, laundry on site, convenient location, natural lighting). I am referring constantly to my own list of House Hunting Tips. It just feels like there are so many things to think about, so many tradeoffs: how important is roommate compatibility vs. location vs. space vs. amenities vs. price vs. AHHHHHHH!
Despite the hassle, it IS kind of exciting to be thinking of setting up shop in a whole new city- like a fresh start. It’s almost like the feeling I felt back in high school when I was thinking of heading off to University. All the butterflies, stress, confusion, uncertainty…
But I did it then and I KNOW I can do it now. I just know that I need to give myself time to think things through, do a little adjusting, and make sure that I let myself grieve a little bit for the past, be a little bit scared for the future, but mostly just live in the present as best I can!
If you’re getting ready for big changes, I feel your pain. You can do it!
Kate