My First Apartment
Robert Neelly Bellah, a sociologist and professor at the University of California, says that “leaving home in a sense involves a kind of second birth in which we give birth to ourselves”. I chose this passage because it can express the exact feeling that I had at the moment I left home. It was in 2011; I had just graduated from University and needed to find a job. The opportunity came from a small charming town, surrounded by the Iguaçu river, and three hours away from my parents’ house. Without a second thought, I grabbed it. Nevertheless, it wasn’t an easy move. I was leaving the comfort of my home, of my town, and I would be far from my boyfriend that I used to see every day for seven years. However, I needed to move on, I needed to start my career, and that job was the best option for me at that time. The next step was to find a new place to live, and make it ready to move in and start my new life.
As we know, not everything is perfect. Everything happened around the holidays and I was in a rush to start working in January. Thankfully, I found a nice place two blocks from my workplace. It was very well located at the downtown and close to everything I needed, so I jumped into the apartment the best I could. I got there basically with a mattress and a coffee maker. That was all I had, a place to sleep and a coffee in the morning, before going to my first day at work. The building was new, so right after I signed the contract, I had to go to the electric company in order to turn on the electricity in the apartment. However, they got my address wrong and couldn’t find the place. When I got there a few days later with my mattress and my coffee maker, I didn’t have electricity in the apartment, so I had a place to sleep, but no coffee. Another inconvenience is that the shower was electric, so I had to take cold showers for a few days. Thank God it was summer.
After the disappointment of not having electricity, I found out that my neighbor was moving in the next day. She was definitely a part of my place. We graduated together and got the job at the same place. Not coincidently, we rented apartments at the same building. They were perfect for two single recent graduated girls. Our apartments were composed of a small bedroom, a bathroom, a small kitchen integrated with the living room. Virginia and I weren’t best friends during the years of university, but we became very good friends when we became neighbors. Virginia had electricity and I had the shower. She would come to my place to take a cold shower, and I would go to hers with my coffee maker to have breakfast in the morning until everything was fixed. This partnership went so well that we started to do everything together. We helped each other a lot, since we were both far from home, and we didn’t know anybody in the new town. We decided to take turns cooking dinner, so one week we would have dinner at her house and on the other week at my house. It worked perfectly, this way we could take some rest from cooking during an entire week. It is so good to find help when you feel alone.
The furniture is another chapter of my adventure. In Brazil, the places for rent don’t come with any furniture or appliances. The only thing that I had in the house was the kitchen sink. Right after I got my first job, my mother got a new job in another city, so my parents were also moving. They chose a smaller house, so I could keep my bedroom furniture. My father sent me a truck with all my stuff and after a few days I was able have my bedroom ready to sleep decently. My cozy room now had a comfy bed, a small closet, and a drawer. I was happy because having my old furniture kind of made me feel closer to home. My parents also gave me a small couch, a little table, and the TV that I had had in my bedroom, but now it had to stay in my new living room, which was also complete now. With my first paycheck, I bought a refrigerator, a stove, and a microwave for the kitchen, and by the end of the month, my little house was ready to live in. Later on, and little by little, I bought other items to make my place more comfortable, like a rug for the living room, and some decorative and funny items to give more personality to my little home. When I realized, I had transformed that cold white apartment on a very nice place to live.
The garage was always a problem. It was built in a way that we had to park two cars in the same spot, one in front of the other, so the car that was parked behind, was always blocked by the other one. My friend Virginia didn’t drive, so I had to share my parking spot with another neighbor. What a nightmare. She was an old, cranky lady that wanted the front spot. I didn’t mind parking in the back, as long as she would move her car when I needed to leave or to get back home. That never worked smoothly. During the day was fine because she used to leave home earlier in the morning, but if I had to leave home at night, she would come to move her car with such a bad mood, complaining and making faces every time. Instead of parking her car in the back when I went out at night, she always parked it on the front, so when I came back, sometimes later at night, I had to call her again to move her car and let me park. Her face looked even worse at these times. In fact, it was not my fault, neither was it hers the way the garage was built. However, we both chose to live there despite the problem, and a little bit more cooperation from her would have made our lives easier.
As soon as I had my own place, I found out that I love hosting. I just love to have friends at my house, to cook for them, and have a good time. My new job brought me new good friends that I have kept until today. Having them over was such an important part of my life in that house. I used my small kitchen so many times to prepare my Brazilian dishes and serve them to my friends. One day I cooked dinner just for the girls who worked with me. It was a girl’s night. We had to squeeze ourselves at my small table until everybody could have a space to eat. It was not the most comfortable dinner time, but it was so special for me, we talked and laugh a lot that day. My boyfriend and I became friends with a very nice couple. She and I shared the same job, and the boys shared a passion for motorcycles, so we always had a lot to talk about. I cooked many dinners for them at my small apartment. There was a phase that I was kind of obsessed with makeup. I watched all the Youtube videos that I could, so I became quite good at it. Of course, it became a reason to have the girls over after work, and we transformed my house in a place to have makeup lessons. It was so fun, we always had a good time during our classes.
When I think of that period of my life, it is always with a smile on my face. I was really happy there. Everything was new for me, but I managed it very well. That new apartment represented for me the accomplishment of years of dedication and study. It marked the beginning of a new life, the life that I dreamed to have after my graduation. I had a beautiful and happy start at that place, and it always brings me good memories. Azar Nafisi, an Iranian writer says that “you get a strange feeling when you leave a place. Like you’ll not only miss the people you love, but you’ll miss the person you are at this time and place because you’ll never be this way ever again”. This thought translates perfectly the feeling that I had the day I moved out my apartment to come to the United States. Even if I had no idea about this writer at that time, when I read this passage a few days ago, it was like traveling back in time, and I felt like I did on my moving day again.
