7 Pros of Living on Your Own After College

8/13/2019 7 Pros of Living on Your Own After College

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7 PROS OF LIVING ON YOUR OWN AFTER COLLEGE ...

Graduating college and thinking about life after school can be very scary, but there are several prosof living on your own. I’ve had this idea in my head since freshman year of college: that I wouldgraduate and then move back in with my parents because it would me help save money, I could stillget fed home cooked meals, and I wouldn’t need to necessarily be a "responsible adult" just yet. Lifedoesn’t always go the way we plan, so I ended up doing the opposite and moved out. I’ve been livingon my own since July, and now I’m here to share some pros of living on your own!

1. A TIME TO REINVENT AND DISCOVER YOURSELF I have done so much soul searching since Imoved out. Seriously, I feel like a completely new person. I’ve realized that even though I consideredmyself moved out of the house when I left for college, I was still under the mom and dad umbrella ofthe university. I went to the cafeteria for meals, always had professors there to guide me, and wasstill told how and when to do things. One of the greatest pros of living on your own is having time tolearn about your passions and your dreams and figuring out what needs to betweaked/changed/improved in order to successfully transform yourself into a new you!

2. LEARNING HOW TO BE INDEPENDENT AND RESPONSIBLE No more meal swipes. No morelaundry swipes. No more running to your RA for something. For the first time in 22 years I feelcompletely responsible for my own actions and it’s been teaching me how to embrace my

independence. Now, this may sound scary to most of you…especially those of you still in college orin high school! But believe me when I tell you, from experience, that it’s actually a really exciting newchallenge. I had a tendency to call my parents, reach out to a friend, or contact a professor when Iwas struggling with something because I always wanted approval before I did anything. Yes, I’lladmit, I was one of those people who didn’t really think for myself. I was always too cautious and tooafraid to do something on my own in fear of failing or making a mistake. Moving out has made melearn how to think for myself. I wake up every morning and think, "Challenge accepted!"

3. CHANCE TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS If you are a shy person or don’t know how to break out ofyour shell, moving out can be a really great icebreaker for you. For those of you who are outgoingand loud like me, moving out can be a fun new way to make friends. This friendship journey canbegin before you even start looking for a new place. Maybe one of your friends has wanted to moveout too – why don’t you guys join forces and move in together? Maybe you want to embark on a morechallenging journey by putting yourself on the market’to meet someone through a newspaper ad oronline? That’s actually how my roommate and I met. After talking back and forth for a while online,we decided to meet at Starbucks and we just really hit it off. Make sure that you don’t pick someone just because – this isn’t college anymore. You don’t need to live with someone you don’t want to livewith or be with someone with whom you have nothing in common with. Ask each other questions.See if the two of you share the same view on things: not wanting boyfriends over on weekdays;respecting each others’ privacy; mutually agreeing to keep the place clean. And don’t forget aboutthe neighbors you’ll meet once you move! My roommate and I have become very close friends withthe people who live around us.

4. HAVING YOUR OWN PRIVACY How many times have you walked into your room and either sawthat something was missing or that something was rearranged? If you can still count these instanceson your two hands, you are lucky. As much as I love my parents I used to cringe when they’d changesomething in my room. I appreciated their thought of wanting to help clean and organize, but I felt soviolated. I’ll never forget the year I started writing a mystery story only to discover the next day thatthe pages went missing. I was probably 16 years old when I began writing it. In my mind, ripping thepages out of a notebook, crumbling them to give the pages a texture, and shoving them back into mydesk was a good idea. Little did I know it was children-room-cleaning-day the next day! So much formy book-to-be. I’ll never know what could have become of that story… I could have been the nextStephanie Myers! 5. SETTING YOUR OWN RULES This pro piggybacks off enjoying your ownprivacy. Ladies in college, I’m sure you can relate with this: do you feel like you’re 12 years old againwhen you go home for a break? I know I felt that way when I’d go home and I was never fond of it. Ican’t even imagine how different my life would have been if I moved back in with my parents aftercollege. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to disown your parents or forget about them. Moving outhas surprisingly brought me closer with them, but the idea of now being able to set my own rulesrather than follow theirs has been so liberating. I have to admit, though, that I really respect my


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parents’ rules and still implement a lot of them: vacuum every day, make sure the kitchen is cleaned,make my bed, clean my room. Bed time, TV time, when and how I decide to clean and run my place,though, has been the best experience. If I choose to stay up and watch a movie «on a work night” Ican – Heaven forbid I could do that at home if I still lived with my parents! If I decide to wait a fewhours before cleaning the kitchen I can. Basically, setting your own rules rocks! 6. HAVING THEFREEDOM TO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS Yes this freedom exists on campus, but how would yourparents feel if you decided on a Thursday night to invite some friends over and blast music, eat junkfood, come home late, and cook breakfast at 2 a.m.? I don’t think they’d be on board. But guess

what? You have this freedom when you’re living on your own after school. My roommate and I cameto the agreement that we wouldn’t have guests come over during the weekdays because she’sfinishing her PT degree and I have to get up early for work in the morning. We do, though, have daysoff or have nothing planned for a night and randomly call up friends to invite over. I’ve had moresleepovers with friends in the last 6 months than I did in the last 6 years.

7. KNOWING WHERE EVERYTHING IS This is a biggie. I swear, every time I go to my parents’house to visit something is changed or moved or gone! I don’t like not knowing where things are.When I moved into my condo, I decided where the dishes went, what each drawer was going tostore, how my closet was going to be organized, where my shoes would go, what my room wouldlook like…everything! I wouldn’t have had this freedom if I had moved back into my old room where

everything has been the same for years. I almost feel trapped or stuck just thinking about a life ofsameness… of going back to what I had known for so long. Do you want to know the best part of all?I don’t need to scream "Mom, Dad, where is ____?" anymore, and it’s amazing. So although yourparents are wonderful and moving back in with them after college may make you feel safe, secure,and comfortable, keep in mind that there is a big world out there for you to see and moving out maybe that first step you’ll need to take in order to transform yourself into a more perfect you! It can bescary but if you feel ready to take a leap of faith, it will be one of the best decisions you could makefor yourself. What is your favorite part about living alone?

~ Donatella Fragiale

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SC boost to open spaces around buildings

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court trashed tweaked rules affecting minimum green spaces at ground level andwidth of main passageways (access for fire engines) in buildings under construction or being

redeveloped in the city.

A bench of Justices Hemant Gokhale and J Chelameswar on Tuesday held that the prescribed minimum

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ground-level open spaces around a building cannot be reduced and replicated on an open-to-sky podium.

The ground-level gardens are necessary as there is "excessive concretization, and a very serious

reduction in open spaces", the judges said, reiterating that the "right to a healthy environment is within

the ambit of the right to life".

Rule 23 of the Development Control Regulation of 1991 mandates 15-25% open space at ground level

depending on the plot size for every building. By an amendment in January 2012, the authorities had

permitted recreating this space on a podium. The SC said any green space on a podium had to be in

addition to the space mandated at ground level.

The bench also held a rule permitting 1.5metre passages on small plots under redevelopment as a fire

hazard and thus invalid. A minimum 6m passage is necessary on plots up to 600 sq metres, unless the

plot abuts a road, the apex court said and directed that the chief fire officer must certify the accessibility

for each reconstruction proposal.

The issues were taken up by the SC while hearing a BMC petition against a Bombay HC order in 2012

allowing construction of a commercial tower by the Kohinoor CTNL Infrastructure Company at Dadar.

The BMC and Kohinoor thrashed out a settlement and the SC accepted it, but came across "serious

questions of reduction of compulsory green space and fire safety hazards".

After striking down the tinkering with building laws, the apex court expanded the scope of a special

technical highrise committee in the state. It appointed retired HC judge P S Patankar as chief and added

an architect member to ensure grievances in redevelopment and slum rehabilitation schemes would be

heard.

Builders had lapped up the podium open space provision. Developers, architects and even the civic body

told the court rising demand for parking space in residential towers meant creating the lots either in

basements or on podiums, which in turn required ramp space, thus reducing area meant for the gardens.

The SC didn't buy the argument, and pointed instead at the "harsh reality of open spaces becomingsmaller and smaller in Mumbai". Greater Mumbai has just 1.91 sq m of open space per person. It falls way

short of the 3 sq m prescribed by the National Building Code 2005 and the 11 sq m recommended by the

Union govt.
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7 Pros of Living on Your Own After College