Living alone

For the past 8ish months I have lived on my own. All in all it has been a great experience. When I first came to the Portland area, I lived with my grandparents while I searched for a job. Once I landed my job and got on my feet, I got my own place, a little studio close to Beaverton. While living on my own I learned a lot about myself and I'm thankful for having the time to live on my own. I proved to myself that I can be wholly self-sufficient. I can pay my bills, feed myself, take care of my own things, and all on my own! I will never wonder if I can live on my own successfully... because I've done it. While I'm very excited to have a roommate coming this weekend, I'm also grateful for having had the time to be on my own.

Some challenges of living on your own: 1) Figuring out how to cook for one. You end up eating variations of the same thing over and over again. I've learned exactly how much pancake mix will make only enough pancakes for two servings. 2) There's no one (except by phone) to talk to when you get home. While it's great to have time to yourself, you don't realize how nice it is to have someone ask about your day until no one does. (Except your great family who checks in by phone daily....love you guys!) 3) You're the only one doing the cleaning. I'm not going to lie, I'm looking forward to sharing the chores again. Although on the flip side, you only have to clean up your own mess which is nice.

I guess with having a roommate moving in this coming weekend I am thinking more about the past months of being on my own and also thinking about the things I have to remember about being a roommate. Like you have to remember to close doors again. And you can't just leave your stuff lying around. And it is important to do your dishes (which I'm pretty good at even living on my own).

All this talk about being a good roommate has caused me to feel the urge to clean up a little in preparation for my roommate's upcoming arrival.....