They Never Said It Would Be Easy

Post Graduation 2016

June

My first order of business after graduating was apartment hunting. The water polo girls that I lived with during my senior year were all going in different directions and our lease ended at the end of the month, so it was time to move. I had the job, I had the roommates, now I just needed the apartment. Morgan, Casey, and I decided to live together. Casey was searching for jobs in the area and Morgan got hired on with me at Bennett Fischer. Unfortunately, Natalie was staying in San Diego to get her MBA and Aria had landed a job in Colorado after graduation. From now on, it was Morgan, Casey, and I taking on Los Angeles together.

In a week or so, Colin and Connor would be moving to LA as well. They just needed to wait for Colin to get transferred from the office in Berkeley to the office in Los Angeles. What seemed like a far fetched idea at the time, being his journalism internship turning into a job and transferring him to LA, actually panned out. We were finally going to be a couple that wasn't long distance and didn't see each other every other month. This was the first time since community college, two years ago, that we would be living in the same city and could see each other as much as we wanted to. Another plus was the fact that Colin and Connor would be sharing a place. This gave Casey and Connor a chance to become a couple. Ever since San Francisco and then Santa Barbara, Casey and Connor have been in contact. Every time she got a message from him, her face would instantly light up. I had never seen her this happy because of a guy, not even with Brett. She really did have a chance with a nice guy that she more than deserved.

Morgan, Casey, and I all met up to start the apartment search. We were looking for a 2 bedroom in Westwood because Bennett Fischer Publishing was only 20 minutes away in downtown LA, but we didn't want to live right in the middle of the city. We arrived at our first apartment and got out of the car.

"Well, this wasn't exactly what I expected," Casey said with disappointment written all over her face.

"It is definitely not the nicest, but we need to remember that we are in Westwood and we have a budget to stay within," I said, trying to explain that our first apartment wasn't going to resemble some sort of resort.

"Let's just take a look inside. You never know, maybe it was redone," Morgan chimed in, trying to find something to be positive about.

We were in and out of there within five minutes. I knew that we couldn't afford the most expensive place, but that apartment was almost inhabitable. The carpet was a complete disaster, with stains from who knows what covering every inch of it. There were cracks all over the walls and the kitchen was somehow smaller than the apartment's tiny bathroom.

We moved on to the next place, which was much nicer.

"Now this is what I'm talking about!" Casey exclaimed, looking at the new building. "I bet the inside is even nicer than the outside!"

I walked inside and instantly knew that this was not within our budget. "Casey, there is no way we can afford this. The 2 bedroom model is at least $1,000 over our budget. We need to get out of here before we fill our heads with unrealistic expectations."

Casey sighed and walked out of the building. We got back into the car and went to a few more places. There were definitely some great apartments within out budget, so all we had to do was agree upon which one was best for us.

"I say we go with the apartment that has the parking garage. We get two spots, so we would only have to find street parking for one car, and since Gianna and I work together, we could carpool which would make parking even easier," Morgan explained, clearly being the logical voice in our search.

"Hmm, I guess I am okay with that one. It isn't as nice as the other apartment that I liked, but we could always decorate it to spruce it up a bit," Casey said, coming to her senses that parking is a huge issue in LA and that we could live without granite countertops.