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TechnographColumn: The enjoyment and easiness of single apartment living
By Andrew Mason
Posted: 2/5/08 Section: Spring 2008 Housing Guide
Ah, silence.
You can do just about absolutely anything you want on this campus.
You have a wide array of food choices, several movie theaters and libraries nearby, local music and performance groups and a nightlife that most of us will never forget.
Well, maybe we won't "remember" the last part that much.
But one thing that's in short supply around this university is peace and quiet. I don't know about you, but I'm usually stressed enough with work and school as it is.
The last thing I need is to go home every night to someone who eats my food, listens to terrible music and invites over friends who, surprise surprise, do the same thing.
I decided that after two years of living in the dorms (no, not residence halls), I wanted to live by myself.
Actually, that sounds a bit Unabomber-ish.
I decided that after two years of living in the dorms, I was tired of having a roommate.
I just wasn't made for it. I grew up in a little central Illinois town that most people from Springfield have never heard of. I didn't really live on a farm, but I could throw a baseball out of my bedroom window and hit a cornfield.
Where I come from, people had their own space. To say that I had to 'adjust' to living in a building that had more people than my entire hometown is like saying Tom Hanks had to 'adjust' to being a real-life astronaut when he almost got himself killed going to the moon. I mean c'mon, what was he thinking? He's an actor!
My freshman roommate (who shall remain nameless) was - putting this bluntly - a drug dealer. See what I did there?
Nice guy and all, but I got tired of living in a Bob Marley shrine. One day I realized that I was living with a stereotype - it was a Tuesday.
My sophomore roommate was much better, at least in the not-committing-a-felony sense. He was quiet and hard-working and rarely had friends over. But he was a workaholic just like I was.
I ended up being as afraid of bothering him as he probably was of bothering me.
You can do just about absolutely anything you want on this campus.
You have a wide array of food choices, several movie theaters and libraries nearby, local music and performance groups and a nightlife that most of us will never forget.
Well, maybe we won't "remember" the last part that much.
But one thing that's in short supply around this university is peace and quiet. I don't know about you, but I'm usually stressed enough with work and school as it is.
The last thing I need is to go home every night to someone who eats my food, listens to terrible music and invites over friends who, surprise surprise, do the same thing.
I decided that after two years of living in the dorms (no, not residence halls), I wanted to live by myself.
Actually, that sounds a bit Unabomber-ish.
I decided that after two years of living in the dorms, I was tired of having a roommate.
I just wasn't made for it. I grew up in a little central Illinois town that most people from Springfield have never heard of. I didn't really live on a farm, but I could throw a baseball out of my bedroom window and hit a cornfield.
Where I come from, people had their own space. To say that I had to 'adjust' to living in a building that had more people than my entire hometown is like saying Tom Hanks had to 'adjust' to being a real-life astronaut when he almost got himself killed going to the moon. I mean c'mon, what was he thinking? He's an actor!
My freshman roommate (who shall remain nameless) was - putting this bluntly - a drug dealer. See what I did there?
Nice guy and all, but I got tired of living in a Bob Marley shrine. One day I realized that I was living with a stereotype - it was a Tuesday.
My sophomore roommate was much better, at least in the not-committing-a-felony sense. He was quiet and hard-working and rarely had friends over. But he was a workaholic just like I was.
I ended up being as afraid of bothering him as he probably was of bothering me.
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