[FILE 5.1.1] - - the goldman file / the story of my life / adulthood / 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. This fact—living on campus—is one 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 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.