I was reading a post by @belemo about his working area (his friend's actually) and it brought back interesting memories of my first few days, probably months, living by myself after campus.
In this case, living by myself means paying my bills (rent, electricity, water, food). In Uni, we shared a bedsitter(studio) with a friend outside the university grounds which my parents paid for so it doesn't count.
I can't remember exactly when I moved into my house since it feels so long ago, however, a timestamp on one of the pictures I took back then in December 2017 tells me I probably moved in mid-2017.
That means I have been living by myself for close to three years, give or take a few months.
Being the last born child my parents did not want me to move out of the family home.
"We will be bored." they said.
I was foolhardy though and hell-bent on going out into the world and starting a life away from the restrictions put in place by my parents. I wanted to do it all by myself.
No more questions on where I was coming from when I arrived home late. No more being asked to wash a whole mountain of dishes or cook supper. No more questions when I decided to stay in bed and watch a couple of movies just to wind down.
So, I grabbed the couple hundreds of dollars I had made trading the Forex Exchange and Options market and took a bus to the city to find a house.
It took me two hours to get there.
Having the reference point of my older brothers' apartment (I stayed the night here) it was relatively easy to go house hunting. Within an hour I had identified what was to be my home for the next 2 years.
A one-bedroom apartment with an 'open plan' living room and kitchen.
Believe me, it was incredibly rare for a young person starting life to move into a one-bedroom house especially in such a chill estate. It had a low population density, two supermarkets in walking distance, 24/7 fast food joints as well as a majority working-class populace.
Most graduates moved into bedsitters costing about $50 a month in the most congested parts of the city and its environs. Some of these places only receive piped water 3 times a week and theft is rife. Laptops and TVs are usually the most prized item.
The rent for me was $140 a month plus another $140 as a deposit for the one-bedroom house. That was the easy part.
I had not factored in just how much money I would need to start living here.
I needed a bed, mattress, bedding, a small gas cooker, utensils, curtains, fiber internet, among many other small things.
At the end of it all, I had spent close to $600 or more inclusive of the rent.
At this point, I had zero furniture in the living room. I only had my small gas cooker at the corner of the room and utensils perched next to the sink.
Unfortunately, at the same time one of my laptops, a HP EliteBook 8540w, which might as well have been a desktop. The battery was completely dead yet it was my most powerful machine. It was the only one that could handle the CPU heavy processes of the work that I was doing to earn money.
Something was also wrong with the WIFI driver. So it had to be connected to the router with a LAN cable.
I cannot quite speak about the type of work since I signed an NDA.
I used the second laptop, a Lenovo, to monitor the results of the work that I was carrying out.
Because of those reasons, I had no choice but to work on the cold hard floor while monitoring the program. By the time the program cycled through my ribs, my back, and other unassociated parts of my body were aching.
I remember taking this picture to show my parents my working situation and they would not have it.
They sent me some money and I was able to acquire a desk and a small plastic chair with no back support so that I could in the very least avoid catching a cold from the cold floor.
Sometimes my back would get stiff and I would turn the table so that my back was now resting on the wall but that did not allow me to have a clear view through the living room window of the outside.
In time, I was able to buy a comfortable high-back office chair, a carpet, and a two-seater sofa.
Eventually, I could afford to move to a more spacious 1 bedroom house with a separate kitchen where I am currently living. I got a bunch more household essentials when living here since I had far more space to put them.
The car came a few months later which was handy in achieving some very important personal investment goals.
Notes: Doing this was my way of reconditioning myself from the comfortable life of having everything available that you wanted. I wanted to fend for myself. Comfort, after all, is where dreams and innovation go to die.
The dream is to ultimately own my own home in the coming 4 years and accomplish that potentially with a portion of my Hive earnings.
I imagine only having to pay my internet, water, and electricity bill and have so much money left over for investments in this crypto space and a future family.
Who knows. It is cool to see just how much things can change in one's life in 3 years.
This is so cool man. Evolution is the key word and slowly but surely, you've grown. I like that desk and I'd love to get something like that for myself too.
Earlier today I lost my Wifi router device and it really sucks. I was so close to crying man. Fuck
Exactly. I look at that plastic chair and smile. I fell of it one time while drunk. Actually twice while laughing.
Sorry to hear about the router. Someone must have gone shopping in your bag and is now posting on his hive blog from it. 😊 😊
Yay!
Your post has been boosted with ESTM. Keep up the good work!
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