Moving Out

I moved out of my parents' house for past months and have been on my own since then.  I opted to rent an apartment with two other people and the feeling of going out on my own was intimidating at initially but the past months had taught me so much about adulthood and what it takes to carry adult's responsibilities. My coworkers and friends have retold countless of stories of how they live on their own and their stories gave me a few advice on how I should as well but actually doing it takes much more work and efforts than I anticipated.  First of all, moving out means I had to refurnishing on my own, the question of how would I get the living room sofa and the kitchen table was definitely not on the top of my to-do list before moving out.  I came to realize I need to find ways to get the furnishing cheap and affordable base on the income and budget I have at the moment; thank God my sister's boyfriend parents have extra furnitures and kitchen table and chairs or else I would have to sit on the carpet and eat my daily dinner while looking into an empty apartment.

Here are a few things I learned after moving out on my own:

1. How to cook. I have to prepare my own breakfast, lunch, and dinner now and the hard work is all worth the sweat since it gives me the sense of accomplishments that no other opportunities could replace it.  In addition, having to do the grocery shopping and cooking takes up a lot of time  and it taught me how to think outside the box rather than always following what my parents tell me to do. For one thing, I had to play up the recipe of certain dishes as I don't have the exact ingredients in the refrigerator to make the dish I had planned.  

2. Take care of my own car. My back passenger tire popped last Friday so I had to get a new tire from American tire and had them replaced it. My car needs as much maintenance as always but the difference now is that there is no one to remind me to change the oil and other broken parts.

3. How to be responsible for myself. Waking up for work on time, cleaning up my own mess after cooking or doing some organizing at the apartment, learning how to clean the stove and the floor after a spill are a few things I had to put on my today list now.  They are now my responsibilities and a part of me is actually excited to tackle them once again when they come up.

4. How it is like to experience the sense of freedom.  No more nagging and complaining from parents and bickering with siblings is equivalent to more freedom to do whatever I want.

5. Think independently. I make my own decisions on what to do and how to spend my hard earn money and time and this, in effect, helps me to be an independent thinker.

6. Problem solving.  For instance, I learned how to fit everything in an organized way to a small area and this seems easy but when there are so many stuff and so little space, this creates a problem. It sounds simple to just put a bunch of stuff in one place and hope for the best but it actually takes some organizing skills and thinking in order to complete the task.

All in all, moving out is a change for the better and no doubt has helped me to grow as a person.  This is a stepping stone and a big change for me as I transition to adulthood and learn how to think for myself.