Free at last

No, I didn't get parole... I moved out of my parent's house and it felt like a prison break. When I graduated high school we lived overseas. I wrongly assumed that in the upcoming months I would simply pick the college or university I wished to attend and mom and dad would send me off and catch the bills. Florida State was looking pretty good when mom and dad broke the news. They aren't paying for shit. To make matters worse, we are moving to southern California, just outside LA, where I can continue to live with them or fend for myself.

My situation was about to be much worse than I could have imagined. First, if you haven't been to LA, don't go. That part of the Country is the most crime-ridden area I have ever been exposed to and I will never go back. Secondly, I was 18 and a high school graduate that was about to be forced to share a room with my younger brother. What the hell is that all about??? So I am stuck and absolutely miserable. No friends, no money, no way to pay for school and sharing a room with my brother. That's bullshit. I even went to talk to the Air Force recruiter and considered joining until my dad blew a gasket.

So I endured that for several months, worked here and there to save money, started classes at a local community college and the next Christmas flew to College Station, Texas to visit my best friend from high school who had a scholarship to attend A&M. I immediately fell in love with the town and the school. Knowing that more than half the 50,000+ students were girls didn't hurt either. So I vowed to move there. My best friend, Wade, vowed to move out of the dorm and find an apartment off campus for us to live in.

That we did. Dad agreed to drive me and my few possessions to College Station if I saved enough money to help pay for the trip and cover deposits and stuff. I did and Wade sent a broshure from the apartment complex, a map of the city with directions to the residence and a key to the door. The broshure looked wonderful and the pictures were obviously taken immediately after original construction. Wade says our place is in the courtyard facing the pool and that he has accumulated furniture and everything.

So the following Christmas break we take off for Texas. Wade was scheduled to arrive the day after I got there and I was so excited I couldn't sit still. It was the longest trip of my life. We get to College Station and use the map to find the complex. Only, it doesn't look much like the picture on the broshure anymore. It is obviously one of the "more affordable" places in town. But what the hey, better than CA. We find the apartment, which faces the empty swimming pool and try the key to no avail. It fits, it just won't open the damn door. So I kick the door in and we walk into the worse excuse for a bachelor pad I have ever seen. Absoluetly no food but plenty of naked bitches hanging on the walls, recipes for mixed drinks and every brand of alcohol you could imagine.

The place looked ransacked. Drawers left open with clothes on the floor, lamps knocked over, cushions pulled up, it was rediculous. Dad laughed out loud and reminded me that he was leaving in the morning and asked if I wanted to go back home. But I couldn't do that.

The furniture was nasty looking and uncomfortable, the apartment was plain dirty and I knew I would spend many months eating baked beans and Ramon noodles just to survive, but go back home? Not an option. Hey, I was out of the home, free to do whatever I pleased, whenever I pleased and I wasn't going back. We learned to upgrade our furniture every year when the seniors graduated. All the underclassmen would stalk the dumpsters waiting for the seniors to clean their apartments and furniture would be rotated like US currency.

I hope my daughters aren't as anxious as I was when they move out (although it would save a ton on food). For me, it was the most exhilerating experience to be totally responsible for myself. Wade and I would sit on our ragged furniture, hungry as hell, sharing a 6 pack and just smile and toast each other saying "free at last, free at last". You would have thought we were abused or deprived children the way we acted.