Living and Loathing: Apartments 101

           There I was, standing over the dead body of my roommate’s pet hedgehog. Of course the one week out of the entire summer that my roommate went out of town, this wretched being had to bite the dust. At the time, the death of this glum creature seemed like a decent reflection of how our “perfect summer” actually played out. Leaving the three of us utterly defeated.

           

            Before I get too deep into this, let us go back to the start of it all…

            At the end of my sophomore year, my two best friends, Anna and Mollie, and I all decided that instead of going home at the end of the semester we wanted to tough it out and live on our own for the summer in Charlotte. All of our parents agreed, under the condition that we must all have a job and were responsible for all financial obligations. We’re all tough, smart girls and we can do it. No problemo. Or so we thought…

            The first step was finding a job. Mollie had secured a job with a local big shot music management group while I committed to a summer as a nanny. Anna hadn’t found a job yet, but she did find us a house pet, Dobby the hedgehog. The next step was finding a reasonably priced apartment. We looked around the city for the best deals but didn’t have much luck. Then our friend, Chad, came to us with a proposal. He was going home for the summer and needed someone to finish out his lease. The place seemed perfect. The price was so low for the summer it was almost a steal! (..red flag) There were no contracts to sign or background checks needed. (red flag) And, although North Tryon (RED FLAG) wasn’t our first choice in location, we could make it work. After all we are college students, so we’re supposed to live like we’re broke and in shackles….right?!

            So the day finally came that we moved into our very first apartment! We were all on cloud nine, floating high and the world could not be a better place when - (*GASP*)

            “Oh, is this our place…?” 

            We all took a moment to take it in. No, it was not exactly as we remembered and yes, it did look a little sketchier than we had imagined, and yes, all of the neighbors are staring, and well, most do not speak English - but we told ourselves that we can do anything. We won’t let the condition or ware and tear of the place get to us. We are three strong, young, beautiful women and we can do this! 

            Two weeks, five roaches, ten nasty looks by the neighbors, one keyed car, and one TERRIFYING run-in with the Hidden Valley Gang King (luckily it was non-threatening) and goodness, we were out of there! So the search for an apartment began again.

            By now Mollie was working full time at her company. My employer had recently been laid off and therefore no longer needed a Nanny, and Anna…well she was still looking for that summer job. After several long days, Anna and I finally found a reasonable apartment. This apartment was on the opposite side of the city - South. In fact, we were so far south we were practically throwing distance away from South Carolina. This time we knew our neighbors, the community was lovely and our landlord was as nice as could be. Things were really looking up and we settled very nicely into our new place.

            It wasn’t long after we were settled into our new place when the serious “first world problems” started to happen. First we were trying to get cable, then water, then electricity, and of course the Keriug broke followed by two of us totaling our cars. Finally, the cherry on top occurred when that poor little hedgehog died. Mollie and I had the pleasure of disclosing this news to Anna, much to her dismay and shrieking cries. Despite all of this difficulty and disaster, we learned what it meant to live on our own in a crash course sort of apartment experience. I have to say that I’m actually thankful for this time, and even came to appreciate the sometimes-questionable cafeteria food at school after having my own horrific cooking experiences– we almost burnt down our lovely apartment multiple times. All in all, my time spent on Winter Oaks Lane was both memorable and enlightening, and I will never forget the time spent and lessons learned with my roommates Mollie and Anna. 




-Adair Kennedy