What Lies Beneath the Dust

~One~

Rys, 2023

The last of the boxes finally unpacked, I finally have a moment to fully take in the home that will be mine for the next however many years it takes me to graduate. It's not huge, but then again, I'm only one person. And for being a broke college student, it's actually pretty nice.

It was a stroke of luck that I even found this house in the first place. Most of the other apartments or homes I was looking at were hella expensive and at least a block away from school. All of the closer places cost thousands of dollars per month, something I don't have, even despite being the daughter of a doctor. Except for mine. I can see the university admin building right from the front porch, and I'm paying several hundred dollars less per month than some of the studio apartments just across the street.

It's an old house, I think built somewhere around the 1930s or 1940s, the rental company told me, so it makes some weird noises at times. But I'm learning what each of those little creaks belongs to after spending several nights here.

I suppose I could have been like so many of my friends and decided to go home for the summer. There's nothing wrong with my parents— they're the ones helping me afford this, after all— and all of my high school friends will be there, but I decided I needed to do something different this year. It will be an adventure, that much is for sure.

It's already close to noon when I finally decide to sit down and make myself some lunch. I haven't had the chance to use the stove yet, mainly because I've been getting all of my kitchen utensils organized, but I'm looking forward to when I finally get a chance to cook something up. For now, I settle for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I sit down on the couch and switch on the TV, ready to turn my mind off for a few hours while watching cartoons.

It feels odd, finally being all on my own. Sure, I may be an only child, but even when I still lived at home my parents were always around. Then I spent my first year here in the city sharing a tiny little dorm room with an overhead light that buzzed and a sticky lock. At least my roommate and I got along well. So, yeah, this is the first time I've ever lived completely by myself.

The neighborhood I live in is nice, from what I've seen. I'm guessing a lot of the places around are probably rented by students like me, though I've seen a few elderly people and families walk past a few times. It's fairly quiet right now, though I doubt things will stay that way once school starts back up again. If there's one thing college students love to do, it's party.

The floorboards creak as I make my way across them, stashing my dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. I'll get to them later. For now, I just want to sit out on my porch and think. It hasn't gotten to the point of the summer where it's excruciatingly hot yet, so I want to soak up what little good weather I'll have before I have to spend the next three months shuttered inside, the air conditioner blowing full blast at all hours of the day.

My parents say that my house doesn't look like somewhere that a college student would live, and that's exactly the way that I want it. I have a certain aesthetic, even if that aesthetic is "old cat lady."

I've always had an affection for the old things that no one wants anymore. Half the stuff I own has either been thrifted or found buried somewhere in the back of an antique store that hasn't seen a feather duster in forty years.

The age of this place is one of the first things that drew me to it. Maybe it's the English major in me, but I've always wondered about the stories behind things. I remember seeing a movie once about a lost painting by a famous artist, where it showed how the painting got to all these different places over the years. Sometimes I wonder what the stories behind my decorations are, and what they would say if they could talk. I've tried to write their tales myself sometimes, but it never really feels genuine.

I suppose I may never get to know the secrets that all these objects hold, but somehow I'm okay with that. There can be a lot of fun in the unknown as well. A few months ago, university was the unknown to me, and now I've virtually fallen in love with college life.

Pushing a dozen more thoughts from my mind, I turn my attention towards organizing.