So this may surprise you but, in my four years not being at home, I developed something of an independent streak!
If you already guessed something along those lines then you're officially more intuitive than my mother, who was shocked and appalled that I wanted to live anywhere other than under her thumb where she could bitch about my weight, my eating habits, or anything that I considered fun. I was eighteen, for Christ's sake! I had just spent four years living it up at a prep school where the only woman I had to answer to (directly, anyway) was my headmistress! That place was great, and I'll be damned if I was going to go back to how I spent all my Summers only full-time.
I would miss my little sister, Alice. But then again, she was about to enroll in the same school I went to. Hopefully she'd develop the same independent streak that I did, because I would hate to see her have to live with Mom. I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
I also didn't want to live with my Dad. Love him as I do, I really just wanted to get out on my own, you know? He'll always be my daddy, but I didn't want to start hating him like I did Mom. Because honestly, I'm kind've a handful. (Several handfuls. Badum-dum-tss) I really just wanted to start living on my own. I felt like I was ready, and I wasn't one to take no for an answer.
So long story short, I got a job. I spent the whole Summer working at this call center, working for some big communications company. I made pretty good money, and I wasn't exactly required to run laps or anything. It was a sedentary position, there was a snack machine right by my booth, and a lot of the folks there were pretty cool. I kept the job after I decided that I was going to move out for, y'know, rent. I had spent the entirety of the Summer mooching off my Mom and a couple of guys who thought I was cute--but really I was just hungry. Girl's gotta eat, right?
Anyway, by the end of the Summer, I had saved up a pretty sizable amount of money. Not enough to move out on my own though. So what did I do? Why, what any other sane person in want of a roommate does, I put out an ad on Craigslist.
Now I know, I know, that could have ended poorly. There are a lot of weirdos on the internet, kids. Don't just go and ask "f/18/usa/400lbs wanna live with me?" on a sketchy site like that. But I was young, and dumb.
It took a while to get everything worked out, and I wound up staying with my Mom for another month or so before the place was ready to move in. But eventually I had everything packed and ready to go. My Mom was nice enough to help me move, I guess. And she offered to pay for the U-Haul, which was more of a kindness than I ever expected to receive from her of all people.
But by the edge of the afternoon, after a little lunch, I was at the apartment complex, ready to move in with...