Issue 2: Freshly painted new apartments
I was at my friend’s newly-rented apartment for the most part of today. But is it newly rented though?
I guess not, because she rented it not less than 6 weeks ago but I’ve not had time to go visit her because my weekends have been so busy and it’s nothing less than 60 minutes drive from my house (sorry, I live in Ibadan, we don’t like travelling just to see the other side of town. No shades to Lagosians though).
I dressed up this morning and told her I was on my way, only for me to spend the next 30 minutes making practice videos in front of my ring light for when I finally become a blown Youtuber. 💀 Every video was an epic fail, with the new worse than the previous. Thinking about it, I don’t think I like growing a Youtube channel. I’d start my videography journey from making reels and see what happens next. Anyways, I like to digress.
On getting to her house, I felt the way I used to feel in my former apartment, like I wrote in this issue. Maybe I’m a bit addicted to moving houses. I have never stayed in an apartment for longer than 2 years. The first time I stayed for two years was during my second and third university years. I had to leave the house because of water scarcity which had me fetching water to the topmost floor of a 2 storey buildings on days when my “water boys” refused to show up to sell water to me.
The second apartment is the one I currently live in. The landlord lives in the same compound and I’ve seen hell from living with him. It’s a story for another day oh. It’s a shared 3-bedroom flat, where I live with 2 other people. I had to pay the second year’s rent because I was not financially buoyant enough to move to a new place where I have to pay agency fees. I laughed to the landlord’s face when he summoned me weeks ago to inform me that an additional two hundred thousand naira has been added to the rent. It was a case of “good riddance to bad rubbish” for me because I never had an intention to renew the rent again. The house isn’t even worth it.
Honestly, if I took out the advised percentage for rent out of my salary monthly till when I plan to move in January/February, it still wouldn’t be enough to pay decent rent in a better environment. But I have decided to not die before death comes. I truly have faith that something will happen for me before then. My needs will be met by God.
One of my biggest goal in life is to live in an apartment I truly desire. I don’t mean to whine, but I’m tired of settling for an apartment because of my budget, only to leave after a year when I’m left with no choice.
My biggest luxury is a living space which is what I want it to be. An apartment which stays freshly painted in white, an apartment with enough space for a mini-library, an apartment that has touches of me here and there, an apartment which has windows/doors that overlook the sunrise and sunsets daily, an apartment that is very comfortable in every sense of it, an apartment that truly feels like home; all that is what I want in my next home.
I suffer from lack of suitable words to express myself tonight, but I do know that the kind of feel I want in my next apartment isn’t cheap.
But I’m waiting, because I know that it is possible. And I’ll get it, maybe not next year, but eventually. And when it happens, I will still write to you.
(PS- This issue ended abruptly because I feel mentally exhausted and I’m tired from the journeying I did today. Don’t worry, I love living spaces so much that I’ll be sure to elaborate on this in some of my subsequent issues).
Thank you.
