After living at home for the summer I was more than ready to
go back to Ada to begin my junior year. This is the year that would be different
than any other, I finally get to live in my own house, with my own rules. Living
on your own for the first time brings various emotions: fear, anxiety and even excitement.
I thought I was prepared to live on my own, I mean how hard could it be? What I
didn’t realize is how hard it is to live with 18 girls, grocery shop, cook and
clean.
Thanks to movies like “House Bunny”, “Legally Blonde” and “Sydney
White”, sororities and sorority houses have a negative connotation. I thought living in a sorority house would be like the movies until I began living
at the Zeta Tau Alpha off-campus house. It became clear in the first few days it’s nothing like the movies. Living with 18 of your sisters sounds like a
great time and it is, but it is also overwhelming. Planning showers, meals,
studying and sleeping began to take over and become hectic with our busy
schedules. After one week of living with my closest friends, I can honestly say it has been an amazing experience with new responsibilities like
grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning.
While living at home I enjoyed grocery shopping with my mom
every weekend. It was a mindless task where
I walked down each aisle throwing items into our cart. Whatever I thought
sounded or looked good, I would get. I didn’t understand why my mom claimed to hate
grocery shopping. I always thought it was fun (probably because I wasn’t paying
for it). News flash: grocery shopping is stressful. 20 years of grocery shopping
with my mom didn’t prepare me for doing it on my own. Food is expensive! Trying
to budget your money is a pain and planning meals for the week is a pain. Long
story short, being an adult is a pain.
I’ve never claimed to be a good cook and after a week of
attempting (and failing) to cook, it has become pretty obvious I will never be
a good cook. It has been an extremely long week of Pizza Rolls, Hot Pockets, cold
sandwiches and even burnt spaghetti. That’s right… burnt spaghetti. I bet you didn’t
know that burning spaghetti was even possible, but it is. Not only am I slowly learning
how to cook but I’m learning how to clean, too. Sounds easy enough but when
there are 18 girls under one roof, things can get a little messy. This year
will definitely be a year full of experimentation and learning.
Needless to say, I’m definitely not ready to be an adult
anytime soon.
