One of the big moments in my early adult working life was when I realized that I could afford to live in a nice place ON MY OWN.
Even now, just knowing that I could rent my very own apartment tomorrow (not that I could imagine needing to do so) makes a world of difference. It’s a milestone in adult life. I was pushed to find my own place upon ending a relationship. The timing worked out well, as I was able to afford one. I lived on my own for three years, in two different apartments, before choosing to have a roommate again.
Recently, several friends have mentioned having roommate-related conflicts in their living situations and have lamented not being able to live alone. It’s so much easier to deal with these predicaments when you can just go out and find an apartment, fill out the application, put a security deposit down, and pay rent for your own place. It puts your mind at ease, for one thing, which impacts your ability to make decisions about roommates. I was reminded of how hard it can be to reach this point in life in a conversation today about the recession, unemployment, job hunting, and comparatively-low starting salaries in Madison. A little later, I read a blog post about a potential living situation that sounded just terrible.
Michael and I were talking about the “struggles to make a decent living” conversation for a few minutes in the car and realized that we’ve been very lucky. I will keep that thought with me when I feel like griping about my job, which actually affords me a high amount of financial flexibility and choice in life. Not having choices (or only having bad choices) sucks.