Learning to Adult and Live Alone In the City

So yeah, the move was pretty smooth. My parents and I just hitched a trailer to the back of our car and did the six-hour drive. I didn't have much to bring anyway, so we just had a mattress and an air mattress to sleep on, surrounded by all my stuff on the ground. My family stayed for the week, with my brother coming in later on the weekend. 

You can imagine what it felt like with four adults in a studio right after a move with little to no furniture. We spent the week shopping for essentials, running between Walmart, Ikea, Costco, and random people's apartments to buy their things off Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji. Near the end of their stay, we finally got to go out a little bit, exploring some restaurants and going up the mountain. It was an exhausting week, but I know I'm lucky to have spent that time with them here before they had to go home. I cried my eyes out, as anyone does during a move, but it was okay. 

My mom feared that I would party non-stop when she left, so obviously now is the time to do exactly that.

Settling In

My third month was spent building furniture and making so many trips to the dollar store to pick up more stuff. I also did some fun things like visit the Biodome and Botanical Gardens and eat so much good food. Sometimes I was alone, sometimes with friends or friends of friends, but it all helped me feel much more comfortable and familiar with the city. 

I love that people are always out and about here, even if it's super late on a weeknight. I love that it definitely feels like a city, but you're only a bus away from nature. I love that there's a unique feel to this city, like it's not just trying to mimic a generic cold concrete jungle. Looking at you, Toronto. My adventures took up many long days, but I always had one thing to come home to: my absolute mess of an apartment.

Living Alone

Living alone has been its own adventure. I always thought I was a pretty clean person, and I still think I am, but maybe I was just more of a people pleaser before. Now that there's no one to accommodate to, I can set my own comfort levels. It means that when I clean, decorate, and care for my home now, it feels like an act of self-care too. 

Also, my clutter was getting a little too deep, so something had to be done. But yeah, being fully responsible for the state of my home and myself feels so rewarding. That is, when it's not a mess. By the end of the month, I was really going into nesting mode. Not for some little baby or anything, but for a life event of arguably comparable significance: Frosh Week.

Frosh Week

This has been one of the most eventful weeks of my life, not just because we had classes from morning to afternoon and frosh events from afternoon to morning, but also because coming from a big high school and an even bigger university, seeing the same 180 people in my cohort every day at McGill's law school already feels super comforting and familiar. 

I look around and I'm in awe of all these people beginning one of the biggest stages of their lives so far. I can't explain how cool it is to meet people from all ends of the Earth. Some have already lived entire lives as professionals in different fields and are now looking to try something new, while some haven't even begun their 20s yet, coming straight out of their CEGEP programs. Quebec kids are built different, is all I'll say.

No offense to U of T, but this week blew my first frosh experience out of the water. I wish I had the time to explain it all to you. I think you'd really like it here because I know I do. It's all happening so fast. I'm trying to stop and smell the roses a bit, except instead of roses, it's just way too much booze and pizza.

Oh gosh, I gotta go now, but let's talk soon, okay? Bye!