The Art Of Living Alone — Part 1
Living alone is something that everyone should aim to do for a period in their lives, it teaches you so much. However, it comes with its challenges too. In short, after graduating from high school, I moved to Batam with a very raw plan, which is to study while working. At first, I lived alone with my sister for about 3 years. Then my sister moved to Bintan then to Jakarta, and not long ago, I moved to a new dorm and lived alone in Batam for 3 years until now.
ADAPTATION
The first thing I felt when I truly lived alone was confusion. Yes, confused about how to adapt to a new environment without my sister. Because I have to be able to take care of myself, have the courage to ask strangers, ask where the market is, where the bus stop is, how to buy groceries at the traditional market, how to choose, how much, what to buy, find a place to eat, have to memorize the road (because I’m blind direction), have to look for information on my own, basically everything is all by myself. And that made it quite difficult for me in the beginning because usually, my sister was there. Even when I wake up I need a deafening alarm so I can hear cause there is no one around to wake me up if I sleep.
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
One of the most difficult things about living alone is most definitely the financial element. When I lived with my sister, we always shared bills such as rent for the dorm, groceries, and even cleaning equipment and supplies. And after I lived alone, everything had to be covered me, it made me quite shocked and instantly became poor hahahahahah. Managing finances is a big challenge, make sure after getting a salary the first thing to pay is rent because it is our temporary home, a place to go home and rest after tired of working. The reason is, when we live alone we tend to be free to do and buy whatever we want. This is what makes it difficult for us to save money. So paying rent on time is a must. And what we almost get scared of is at the end of the month, money is almost running out, and usually, my ninja way is to eat eggs, and of course, instant noodles or fast Mondays and Thursdays to save lunch.
“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.” Benjamin Franklin
BEING A HOUSEWIFE
Do you hate having to do your laundry? Does the thought of cleaning your clothes make you cringe and die a little bit inside? Don’t worry, you aren’t the only one who has struggled to find any motivation to get your clothes clean. I do. What I don’t like is the routine of washing clothes, drying clothes, folding clothes, and even ironing clothes. It was very tiring and tedious. In fact, it is not uncommon for my clothes to fade because they are not separated from colored clothes and white clothes. Or we often soak our clothes for a long time, because we are lazy to wash them and sometimes the clothes stink HAHAHA You keep thinking you’ll clean them but keep postponing.
This washing problem seems to have made us sick, not to mention we have to wash dishes, cooking utensils, etc. Before we even start cooking, let’s face it with the question “What do you want to eat today?” It just took a long time to choose and ended up with the same menu from yesterday. In the past, we always received prepared food from our parents, but when you live alone, you are required to make your own choices.
And once again. Your place is always a mess. Especially when you are in a hurry to go to work, you don’t even have time to clean your bed, tidy up your make-up tools, or even sweep the floor, and when you come home from work, you are tired and immediately want to sleep. Sometimes I do all the cleaning activities on Saturday afternoons or on Sundays. Yeah At least my room is clean even if only once a week hahahahaha
In this phase, we all realize how great our parents are in handling things that are pretty trivial in our eyes but when we do it ourselves it is very difficult. We should thank our parents for something like this. Love you mom.
Continued…
