What is this thing called “settling down”?
Today my department chair saw me in the parking lot and we stopped to chat, finding it much easier to talk uninterrupted in the middle of a bunch of frantic students driving around looking for parking spaces than, say, our offices, where we’d just be interrupted.
“You should apply for the new housing loan,” she encouraged me for the tenth time. “Buy a house now while the prices are cheap.”
I nodded and said maybe next year, because the university’s new housing loan program is generous and SoCal house prices are cheaper now than they’ve ever been. But I assume prices will continue to tank for at least another year, and I need time to think through the whole home ownership issue.
You see, I have absolutely no sense of what it might be like to settle down. None. I don’t think I’ve ever lived in one house or apartment longer than five years. Only when I began attending college at UC Santa Barbara did I settle in one state, and even so, I’ve lived in at least eight different cities/towns since coming here.
So the goal of home ownership isn’t, perhaps, as deeply ingrained in my psyche as it is for those who’ve lived in the same house their entire life. I rather like the idea of not having to pack up every couple of years to change apartments, but on the other hand, there are advantages to being able to put all my worldly goods into a storage unit and move to Italy for three months if I want to. Besides, I’m only one person. Do I really need to own my own place?
I don’t know what it’s like for people who have a strong sense of being settled in one place. I imagine they feel tied to their community, care about local politics, and recognize each other when they go shopping or out to a movie. I’m still taken aback when I go to the mall and run into another faculty member or a student who recognizes me — it’s not an experience I grew up with, although now that I’m hitting my 10-year mark in this job, it’s one that I’m beginning to experience more often. I find it a little discomfiting. There’s security in anonymity.
I’m getting ready to move to a new apartment on May 10 — the third place I’ve lived in three years. I’m looking forward to it. Sure, moving is a bit of a hassle — movers are expensive, I still need to set up utilities and find some boxes, and I dread trying to make the wireless router work — but I can’t wait to enjoy clean carpet and new paint, more space, no roommates, a chance to try a different decorating scheme, and a gym within walking distance. Hurray! And with any luck, I’ll be able to stay here for more than a year.
But I don’t expect to think of myself as settling down there.
drupagliassotti @ April 17, 2008