The Dorm

Most kids can’t wait until they’re able to live on their own. So many try to move out as soon as they become legal adults and/or out of highschool. Very often, some realize either aren’t ready to and/or comfortable enough living on their own, and they eventually move back in with family. Smart people attempt to live with a friend or two, or go through their college to find a roommate. Some even actively choose to live in dorms before trying to find an apartment.

Personally, I was more than happy staying with my parents until I was sure I’m completely ready to live on my own. Sadly life had other plans.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that my dad was offered a newer and much better position at his work. What pissed me off is the fact that the new position is at their Austrian location and they made sure to specifically say they would only be paying for two people to move out there, knowing very well that there were three of us. I feel like his old boss is still angry that I refused her son’s advances, way more than once. The only bright side is that she let them wait to answer until after we were able to find me somewhere to live.

It took a little while, like maybe 2 months, but we eventually found a place.

There is a public all female dorm just outside of town that had some rooms available. Obviously we did research the place. The dorm is a part of this cluster of buildings that have an interesting purpose. Apparently the owners are a pretty well off older couple who wanted to be able to provide somewhere safe for people to stay, especially lgbt+ youths and singlestruggling parents. There are 3 main buildings: the female dorm, the male dorm, and the family apartments. The apartments are a little bigger than the dorms, but it seems like they have to be since they are meant for people with kids.

There are 2 nonresidential buildings. One is the maintenance building, mostly used by staff members. The other is a recreational buildingclub house. The official website said the club house has a mini gym, librarycomputer room, snack bar, and a locker room that is both for the gym and leads to a pool outside.

The building I’ll be living in has residential 3 floors, along with the lobby, a lounge area, and a laundry room on the ground floor. The residential floors have a pretty nice communal kitchen on one end. There are also shower rooms roughly in the middle of each floor. It seems that each of the bedrooms has a personal half bath and a little kitchenette (a couple of counters, full sized fridge, and a microwave), which is nice.

When we first went to check it out the room kinda seemed more like a tiny apartment than a dorm room, probably the size of the room and the kitchenette. Then again, I don’t really have much knowledge of dorms outside of media portrayal. You could probably fit a queen sized bed in there easily and still have plenty of room left. (if the bed was pushed against the wall).

Decently big room and surprisingly affordable rent? Yeah, we were sold on this place. The communal shower was a bit of a turn off but not a deal breaker.

With the help of my parents and an old buddy of dad’s, Dylan, moving everything in was rather easy. The fact that I don’t have much stuff to begin with made it a lot easier to pack and transport. The size of the room didn’t make it easy to unpack, mostly trying to decide where to put s**t. At least it wasn’t too time consuming actually putting everything up once we figured out where to put it all. When we were all finished Dylan gave me a gift. He makes custom electronics for a living, and he made me a landline and radio combination in the shape of Bendy’s head.

It’s been half a month since I fully moved in, and about a week since my parents left for Austria. Not gonna lie, I’m still not used to being 100 percent on my own. At least the knowledge that there are other people living here makes it a little more bearable, even if I haven’t really interacted with them much besides initial greetings and brief hallway interactions. If this was an apartment complex I probably wouldn’t be as calm knowing I wouldn’t be alone in the building. It’s probably the size difference of the building and rooms.

Thankfully going to work keeps me from being alone in my room 247. The main reason I even got the job to begin with, and that was way before I had to live on my own, was to get me out of the house. Extra money and the job actually kind of fun is a nice bonus, but forcing me to interact with people in person was the goal the entire time. Since I’ll already be out once work is done, sometimes I’ll go places just because and hang out.

One thing that’s definitely going to be harder is going to be holidays. Specifically Christmas and Easter. Halloween is easy to make plans for by yourself and I never really cared for Thanksgiving to begin with (so I probably won’t be celebrating it). It’s only mid August, so I have a little over 3 months to try and figure out what to do. Hopefully I can make some irl friends that I could spend the holiday with. Hell, maybe I’ll make friends with some of the other residents, the lady to the right of me seems really nice. If all else, I’ll just end up getting take out and probably do a stream with some online friends. And who knows, that last option might help at least a few others feel even a little less lonely.

I’m sure I’ll figure something out by then. Right now I should just focus on trying to maintain good financial habits.

(Word Count: 1030)

Author's Note

Fun fact, I wrote a one shot for the meatlyjam, NeonWinter is Live, and it is about the same OC that this story is about. It takes place much later than this starter does.