When you must go back to go forward

(Image courtesy of Facebook)

For Vince Barracchini, a twenty-something, life was great. He lived in an apartment with one roommate, partied hard, and ate taco-bell for his fourth meal. That time seems like a distant memory for him now as he decided to move back into his parent’s home.

For my slideshow presentation, I want to do a profile as he re-acclimates himself to his parent’s household and a new full time job. I know that it is hard once you have had all the freedom in the world to go back to the rules of the land at home. I want to explore how Vince is handling the changes in his life style.

Unlocking a new lease

(Photo courtesty of Google)

The article I chose to review for this blog assignment is from The Washington Post. "What Every Renter Should Know," by Stacy Gilliam, is about, in short, how to find an apartment or home to move into. The article discusses topics from finding residences within a particular budget to making your home uniquely yours through splashes of color on the walls. One quote that was interesting to me was "Your quality of life is really far more about who you live next to, then how much square footage you have in your apartment" (Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan). I only have two real objections to the article:

1. No topic is covered in detail longer than two sentences and


2. The excluesively online article only provides one link (a reference to a source) to help readers find more information about the topics she discusses.

I would add these pieces of information for readers to the article. I would also include more sources of information. The only source included was that of an interior designer. I would most likely speak with leasing agents or possibly a lawyer to talk about common issues with leases.

Overall, the article was informative but as a reader, I wanted more. The article stopped short of telling me beyond one sentence on each subject, everything I need to know about moving out.

Journey with me as we enter this Brave New World

The hardest thing for a young person (and their parents too) is to make the move out onto their own whether it be to go to college or just to spread their wings. When some students go to college, lets face it, they get a sort of restricted practice run of truly living on their own. I do give these students kudos because they do in some respects have to balance a budget and time but they never have to go beyond this point. Their meals are generally chosen for them and they don't have to worry about getting to campus early to find parking. A fact I will readily admit is that eventually everyone will have to live on their own. This blog is created for the individual whom is interested in learning more about living on their own or for the person who is making plans to move. My blog beat, called, "Brave New World" is for all the people out there just like me who need the information gathered together. It would have been so much easier had I had a resource that told me how to select a roommate, create and maintain a budget and how to resolve issues involving the community, housemates and school.

One year ago, I moved away from home. For the first time in my life the decisions made had real consequences. The choices I made influenced not only my own life but my roommate's life as well. We spent six months making plans and figuring out how to start out away from home. All of what we learned came from advice from family, friends and not uncommonly, the Internet. We took from all these sources a mish-mash of information others have used and together we found the things we needed and even some things we didn't know we would need (like spatulas and extension cords). The planning we did over the months before move-in day truly helped to relieve some of the stress (although stress is inevitable).