I have now been living in a one-bedroom, fourth floor apartment with three other girls for one week. Just minutes away from the Capitol in the heart of Washington D.C., I am experiencing what it is like to truly grow up. Some call it adulting; I call it growing pains.
Today is the first day in four days that we have toilet paper again. I am not sure who finally bought it, but it was discussed every day that we continued to use the scratchy brown paper towels from the kitchen. At one point Emily, one of my roommates, told me she ordered it online with some other groceries, but it never did arrive.
Another realization I’ve had since leasing my first apartment is that the spices, cream, sugar, herbs, oil, salt, pepper, vinegar and other necessities for cooking that were always just in the cabinet when a recipe called for them are not provided. If you want to start drinking black coffee, just be frugal enough to not want to buy cream and sugar and eventually you will start liking it.
I’ve been cooking, but sometimes when I look up recipes I skip over several ingredients that I deem not necessary. It’s true that not every ingredient is necessary but there’s a difference between chicken marsala and chicken with salt.
The salted chicken has now lasted for five meals — let me know if you first-timers have figured out how to cook for one.
I am starting to regret the days I complained about Clark Dining Hall. I actually have to cook this summer because I completely used all of my money in the school year avoiding the dining hall. For whatever reason, I really didn’t like having instant food within five minutes walking distance.
Moving into a dorm at NC State had its share of lessons and challenges, but it cannot be undervalued how much easier it was living within a community where food, medical care, multiple libraries, recreational activities and student events coexisted. I honestly don’t know where I would go if I needed a doctor here — my mom has been scheduling my doctor’s appointments since before I was born.
Interestingly enough, I am not attempting to argue that my education has left me woefully unprepared for the realities of adulthood. I think that the knowledge I am gaining had to be learned through experience.
Although I certainly could have benefited from some finance or cooking classes in high school, it took me one trip to Harris Teeter to learn that you should only buy as many groceries as you are willing to carry on the walk home.
For a reference, I made it about half a block with 10 loaded bags before calling an Uber. My parents would laugh at my complaints.
Apparently, many millennials are struggling with growing pains themselves, and absolutely other underlying economic factors. In 2014, Trulia recorded the true home ownership rate, the percentage of young adults who own homes, at 13.2 percent. This compounds with the number of young adults, which includes the range of ages between 18 and 34, who were living with their parents in 2014 — 31.1 percent.
Trulia explains that although more young adults were moving out of their parents’ household than the year before, the rate of young adults renting or buying had decreased, meaning they were living with other friends or relatives.
Why are there so many millennials slow to leave the nest or comfort or a friend’s household? Living anywhere is expensive, but it is especially expensive in a city like D.C. I could not find a comfortable, spacious apartment for less than $1,500 a month that was in walking distance of my work, except for the one bedroom apartment I am sharing with three other people.
Even though I know friends renting houses in Raleigh for around $500-$800, not a bad price, it may be cheaper to live with parents or other family members to save out on one of the many costs of living that add up in adulthood. I could list bills and expenses, but it would take me another column to do so.
To all of my fellow NC State students going off on adventures this summer, hang in there. Growing pains come in all different varieties but most of them work out fine. Just don’t forget to turn off that stove (go ahead and check all of them), wash your bathroom towel at least every other month and check the expiration date on your milk carton.
