My First Place

I got into a great university here in NC in 2005 so I had to finally move out of my parents' house.  A couple friends of mine moved with me and we managed to go in together on rent for a house near the campus.  It was within walking distance of the university, which was the main selling point for me. 

I was so excited to finally be moved out on my own.  Not to mention I was sharing the place with two of my best friends.  The house was not a great house, though.  It smelled funny, things kept going on the fritz, rain would leak into the walls, one of the air conditioners leaked, there was a narrow driveway, and it had a terrible problem with cave crickets and other insects.  It was pretty... special.

It was nice, however, to walk to school.  I enjoyed being in the open air.  It was a scenic walk with an interesting interplay of beautiful trees and old, delapidated businesses.  There was always this homeless guy who would be out at the crack of dawn collecting recyclable materials to take and turn in for cash.  He was a very nice and friendly guy.  I was really big into the (then) new album by the Silver Jews and there was this song on the album called "Animal Shapes."  I got the song in my head a lot.  Not only because it's catchy and upbeat, but, when I would be out walking, I'd look up at the clouds and it would remind me of a line in the song that goes, "God must be carving the clouds into animal shapes."

Eventually and unfortunately, my roommates had to move out because they could no longer afford to live there.  I could not find a suitable replacement so my mom helped me to finish off the lease and I moved in with my girlfriend.  By that time, the house was full of fleas that were previously brought in by my roommates' cats.  So, the place was practically unlivable to me because fleas love me a little too much.  It got to be kind of terrifying to even walk into the place because every time I sat down a flea or two would magically appear on me. 

Despite all of this, though, I was actually kind of sad to leave.  As I looked around at my boxed up belongings and the near-empty house, I momentarily forgot that the place was actually kind of a dump.  I had only lived there a little while, but it was my first place, afterall.  I wondered if all the college students who had lived there before me had felt the same and if future college students would be able to defend themselves from the rather aggressive cave crickets.  I loaded up my car, shut the house's front door, pulled the door hard toward me so that the deadbolt would properly lock (because you had to do that for some reason), and then I locked the screen door... that had a hole in the screen.  I then got into the car and put in that Silver Jews CD so I could, at least, try to remember the place fondly.