Visiting the old apartments

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@thecitizennews.com

I started moving out of my mother’s house last weekend.

I know that some of you must be thinking that it is about time, being a 25-year-old and having a job that doesn’t include food service (much), but the truth of the matter is that I lived on my own for four years in Athens, with minimal assistance from my parents. These past two years have been a wonderful break.

I loved my places of residence in Athens, though, despite their shortcomings. In my sophomore year at UGA, I lived with three friends at an apartment complex called Players Club. There were hundreds of apartments with dishwashers, washers and dryers, a tennis court and a pool. Apartments on the second floor, like mine, had four bedrooms, vaulted ceilings and the tiniest kitchen known to man. Only two people could be in the kitchen at one time and one of them had to not breathe or move.

My friends and I would often sit on our balcony and watch fireflies dart in and out of the forest that was our backyard. We had friends in the complex that we visited all the time and we hosted our fair share of parties. I met hundreds of people in the complex that year, but at the end of the lease my friends and I vacated the premises.

The next place that I lived was a house on the opposite side of town. I moved there with one of my roommates and one of our friends from Players Club. The house was great. It had hardwood floors, a big kitchen, and a huge backyard. Our next door neighbors were heads of the Neighborhood Watch program and the owners of a lawn mower. We paid our neighbor to mow our lawn and things were great.

The neighborhood was kind of sketchy. At night, there were dangerous noises, but we played it safe. We always seemed to have something going on at all hours of the night and I think that may have kept the lurkers, if there were any, away. After all, we were poor college students, living in an inexpensive area. Why rob us?
Though we all loved the house on Knottingham Drive, we had to leave at the end of the lease. There were internal struggles with the people I was living with and it was just time for us to go our separate ways. I needed to find a place quickly, so I moved in with some friends to an apartment complex nearby called Tallassee Club Villas.

This apartment was very comfortable. The bedrooms were big, the kitchen was a decent size and I had a bathroom all to myself, which I’m sure pleased my roommates immensely. We had a cool front porch area, a pool and a convenience store right down the street. It was a great place and I stayed there for two years.

And then it was over.

My roommates were getting a house outside of Athens and I really needed to get out of town. I was done with school and I needed to get a real job (still looking — just kidding).

My mom told me about an opening at the newspaper back home and I went for it. Of course, living on your own in Fayette County can be kind of expensive, so for the last two years I have paid a minimal amount of rent and stayed at my mom’s house. I took the second largest bedroom, enjoyed home-cooked meals every night and relaxed.

Now, I am moving out of Peachtree City and getting an apartment in Fayetteville. It is a two bedroom townhouse and I have a very nice roommate. It is a nice place, with a large kitchen and two bathrooms, and I plan on making it nicer, making it a home. It will be good to be on my own, have absolute peace and quiet, and exercise my independence. Of course, I can always go home for a home-cooked meal every now and then.

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