Condo Living

One thing I haven’t written about in the blog is where we are currently living. So let me start.

Last year, a few months after summer, there were a few changes in our family life. It has been one of the most strenuous, interesting and moving (literally and figuratively) phase, which will and has probably made dents and marks here and there, leading to where we are now—a place (not so much) of our own.

It was pretty hard at first. No I mean, up to now, really really hard. There were a lot of pinching and crunching here and there. But slowly, and thank God for a lot of unaccounted for blessings and surprises, we were able to get the basic things we need, carpet included.

Living on your own has a lot of dis and advantages. Let me enumerate them, well, all that I can remember now.

The DIS-advantages:

1.   Paying the bills—all of it –for someone who’s been living with her family for most of her life, and well, the roommate’s parent’s for the last 3 years, paying the bills is the last thing we were asked to do. There were some bills but those were minor. Now that we moved to our first home, and you have to buy everything, you feel the little pinches here and there. But hey, it’s a small price to pay for freedom.

2.   For emergency, you rely on yourself. And only your self—last year,I underwent appendectomy. My tummy was aching for a few days already, but I opted to ignore it. I even continued my fitness ritual and went around meeting people that Sunday. The Monday after, when I finally decided there might be a tiny bit wrong, I was asked to just stay in the hospital and have an operation. And there were days when I stayed in the hospital alone, which I did not mind at all. I had good friends who visited me every now and then and some I would have wanted to visit but did not try that hard (you know who you people are—but I forgive you. Everytime.), but most of the time, save the time my dad (who is quite frequently there), I was alone. And you know me, I now love me time.

3.   Eating may or may not be communal—for someone who thrives in communal eating, living on your own may entail occasional solo eating. And cooking for oneself—which most often translates to just munching on carrots/fruits/ cucumbers and other raw items on the fridge.

4.   TV becomes your BFF. Or torrents. Or DVDs. If all else fail, there is always the internet. And work.

5.   You do everything by yourself. Yes, you can have a help or two but when it comes to macro, you do it alone.

The advantages

1.   The first advantage of living on your own is of course, the freedom. Emotional, physical, freedom in all its forms—for someone who lived with her family forever, freedom and privacy is a something that is of utmost importance. There are no in-laws to consider, no other queens, no other rules—just yours and your roommate’s. Sometimes roommates can be overbearing too, but, still, that’s just one person.

2.   Another advantage of living on your own is, you get to plan, prepare and execute a diet, no matter how weird. Simply put, since you are doing your own groceries, you get to choose what goes inside the cart. You can throw a party and you can feed people jelly beans and no one will care. Seriously. 

3.   Living on your own entails (and will train you to be more) discipline(d). With your combined incomes, you more or less know the cash flow on a monthly basis. So, you start to learn about budgeting and seriously sticking to it.

4.   Living on your own makes the other people you used to live with miss you. Sort of. Or at least it makes you indifferent to what they think about you.

5.   Finally, living on your own makes you a little more respected. It doesn't matter that there are still times when money is not as fluid. Or you cannot cook, period. Or you still fight like babies. In front of all the other people that matters, you are grown ups, you are independent and you get respected accordingly. ##