Growing Up

I was going to write a post about voting and the fact that NOMATTER WHAT, history is made, but instead I am going to post about my first apartment as an adult.

When I was 26, I got my first apartment. I had lived by myself before but there was either parental funding or roommates in the mix. There was always some sort of financial back up. This was my first 'all by myself' apartment. The apartment was in an old brick 4 square about a half mile from where I live now. I lived upstairs. It had 4 rooms: a living room, a galley kitchen, a galley bathroom and a bedroom, maybe 600 sq ft. It ran $325 a month. There was a large front porch that I shared with my next door neighbor. I loved it. My boyfriend at the time helped me find it and move in. He lived in Chattanooga, attending a college there and our relationship was new enough that it was best that he was there and I was in Asheville. He would come to visit on the weekends and we had a blast in that apartment. I had friends come over all the time and became friends with my neighbors.

When I first moved in, I remember the aforementioned boyfriend and I were up late talking. I didn't have a job at the time. I had just finished a seasonal position working with adjudicated youth in a wilderness environment (hoods in the woods) and was terrified that I would be able to make ends meet. Terrified. My only expense was rent and about $25 a month in utilities. I owned my car, I didn't have credit cards and yet I was still terrified I would not be able to make ends meet. In the past I never really thought about being self-sufficient. I looked in the paper and eventually got a temp job where the main requirement was the ability use Excel. I embellished my experience and figured it out as I went. I used it a little in college but was not proficient. That led to a full time position which led to a job as an analyst which led to implementing ERP systems which led to consulting other companies to implement ERP systems which led to me currently owning my own consulting company. As my career progressed, my ability to save money and contribute more (via taxes, mostly) grew as well. My independence grew, my self reliance grew and my abilities grew. It all started with the desire to scrape together enough to make ends meet. Some people would call this the American dream. I just wanted my apartment.

Anyway, that boyfriend, he's now my husband. And today, 8 years ago, I agreed to marry him. Happy anniversary, Sweet Heart. It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?