I’m So Excited To Finally Live Off-Campus

By Andrea Diaz-Moreno on September 23, 2014

Image via TripAdvisor.com

I arrived in Santa Cruz around 6:40 PM on a Saturday evening, after a flight from San Diego and a long journey from the San Jose Airport to the Santa Cruz Metro Station.

I opted to decline the luxury of going back to Santa Cruz via a shuttle, saving the much needed money for other future expenses instead, and prepared to move my two large bags around the VTA Airport Flyer to the Santa Clara Caltrain station, ride the Caltrain to the San Jose Diridion station, ride the Highway 17 bus to the Santa Cruz Metro Station, and finally walk with the help of my roommates to my new off-campus home that I hadn’t seen up until that day.

Though I arrived around 6:40 PM, it wasn’t until 7:00 PM when I was given my house key and I was finally standing inside my new room looking at the large empty space that would be my half.

I set down my bags on my side and started to think about all the things I still needed to buy.  I still needed to buy  furniture, buy groceries, get my other things from the storage, pay for the delivery, buy my books, buy pots, and pay rent next week.

When these realizations came to me, I must admit I was feeling a little worried, but these were only my first 24 hours living off-campus and school doesn’t start until next week. I have plenty of time to buy the stuff I need.

After I settled down from my  momentary “to-do list” anxiety, I treated myself to a nice $5 pizza, officially having my first meal at the dinner table of my new home.

Despite my financial aid offer being lower than expected, and despite being worried about the stuff I need and the monthly expenses that were ahead of me, I’m so excited to finally live off-campus.

Image via collegeniche.com

Don’t get me wrong, I loved living at UCSC. The campus is extremely beautiful, offering a serene setting that no lengthy homework assignment or midterm could ever ruin. There’s so much to explore around campus, and I know I’ll definitely miss living within five minutes of the forest.

Still, I’m so excited to finally live off-campus.

Living in your house over a dorm has its wonderful perks. You have no idea how much living space I have now. A double in a house is way bigger than a double on campus, and definitely bigger than any triple I’ve lived in the last two years. Especially now that practically all the doubles have been turned to triples and singles to doubles to accommodate the larger number of incoming students.

This is important to think about. In essence, students who are living on campus are paying more for less, and if we look strictly at space, a student is paying for a 7-day meal plan in the dorms around $12,510-$$16,668, despite being provided with less living space than previous years. 

Also, I finally have a kitchen and I can start cooking my own meals. I knew if I would’ve stayed on campus, I would’ve had to stay in the dorms. And if I had stayed in the dorms, I would’ve had to put off learning how to cook for at least another year. Perhaps that’s something I could afford postponing at 18, but at 20 years of age, I feel this is a crucial skill that needs to be developed now.

Porter/Kresge Dining Hall. Image via housing.ucsc.edu

I loved the convenience of dining hall food, but no dining hall is open after 11 PM to satisfy those Saturday 2 AM enchilada cravings. Instead of walking all the way to the other side of campus on the weekends when the Porter/Kresge Dinning Hall is closed and the College Eight Dinning Hall closes at 8 PM, I’m now a few steps away from my kitchen and have full control of my enchilada making.

And to make it a little more ideal, there are so many grocery stores near my house that I don’t ever need to worry about catching a bus ride when it comes to grocery shopping.

Halloween Parade in Downtown Santa Cruz. Image via magicalurbanism.com

 And that’s another thing that makes me so excited about finally living off-campus: the proximity to the actual city of Santa Cruz. I could not tell you how many times I wasn’t able to attend an event or go somewhere I needed because I lived on campus. It gets bothersome to try to catch the next bus or the night owl back to campus in order to prevent being stranded in the city. 

Now, I’m a short walk away from downtown and it’ll make it easier to develop a deeper connection to the Santa Cruz community since everything is close by. I think this is something that is difficult to experience on campus, since the school is relatively far and secluded from the rest of the city. I can now easily explore beyond the downtown area and truly see Santa Cruz in its entirety.

Ohlone House. Image via http://collegeten.ucsc.edu

And although I’m so excited to finally live off-campus, I still think it’s very beneficial to have the dorm experience. When it comes to freshmen and transfer students, living in the dorms is such an exciting experience, from the moment you meet the people who could possibly become your best friends or significant others to the dorm parties and forest raves.

Image via http://img.groundspeak.com

Despite my excitement to live off-campus, I loved living in the dorms and I’m thankful for that experience because it allowed me to meet the wonderful and lovely people whom I can now call close friends and share this cute home with. I loved living in the dorms because it allowed me to concentrate on my studies without worrying about where to live, what to eat, and paying rent during an age that I knew I was clueless about what to study and not ready to face such dilemmas.

I loved living in the dorms because those two years allowed me to build up to this moment where I can truly be sure that I am ready to buy  furniture, buy groceries, get my other things from the storage, pay for the delivery, buy my books, buy pots, and pay rent next week. Despite the comfort of the dorms and the lack of payments made on my part, I feel that these are things I’ve been wanting to experience as I consider them to symbolize the transition into adulthood.

Maybe these are adult annoyances that with time I’ll come to dislike, but I’m excited for that process and I think this is a start and that’s why I’m so excited to finally live off-campus. 

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