Story of My Life: Moving Out

At what age did you move out of your parents' house, and where did you go? Describe your first apartment.

I was 18 when I moved out of my parents house...will this be how I answer these questions, as in just straight on?...and I went to a place where I had some familiarity, Miami. Well, technically it was Coral Gables, a neighborhood of metro Miami. I had my first apartment when I was a junior after living my first two years on campus. The ability to live on campus as a freshman is a major reason I ended up in Miami and not, say, San Francisco.

One weekend day during my senior year of high school my parents and I took a drive from home in Stockton to a field day, or informational day, or whatever, at SFSU. By this time, I had my college choices narrowed down to three - UM, SFSU, and Drexel, and although I had maintained throughout high school that I wanted to and would indeed go to school out of state, I was getting cold feet on moving across the country. SFSU was a sort of safety school; it was close to home, in a city that I loved, and my brother went there. It was a fortunate trip in the end, because I got what ended up being a critical piece of information for my decision-making process; I learned SFSU could not guarantee housing to incoming freshman.

This meant, in theory, I could choose to attend SFSU but then be in the position of needing to find an apartment in San Francisco, essentially leaving me all on my own. Or at least with strangers? I mean, that was the thing. It seemed like it was going to or could be a crapshoot just to ensure I had a roof over my head. Spending the summer heading in to my freshman year hunting for apartments in the City was not what I had in mind when it came to the beginning of my college experience. As my senior year of high school was moving along I was figuring out just what I wanted out of my college experience. Living off campus in a big city didn’t fit into the picture.

So SFSU was out. Down to Drexel and Miami.

I visited Drexel with my dad in February?…November?…at some point during my senior year as well (I “visited” UM on a rainy day in the summer while on a family trip in “nearby” Sunny Isles Beach). If I remember correctly, the on-campus housing issue was a non-issue at Drexel and I’d pretty much be guaranteed a dormroom. We checked things out around campus and the surrounding area but it all felt a little too urban for me. Whereas with going to SFSU I would possibly have to live somewhere in the city, going to school and even living on campus at Drexel was practically living in the city. Even Drexel referred to their little plot as an “urban” campus. I didn’t feel like that was any better.

And pretty soon it became clear it would be Miami.

I did go there every summer growing up to visit family. My dad grew up there after moving from Elmont, Long Island at 11, and my uncle’s family and Grandma still lived there, and so the familiarity was there.