If ten years ago someone told me I would be living in the cutest little studio with the love of my life, I would laugh. Ten-year-old me would say something like, “There’s no way my parents would allow that.” Yet here we are buying pots and pans for a tiny studio we’ll call home in our junior year of college.
How did I get here? You might be asking. Well, let me tell you!
It all started a year ago when my boyfriend randomly said we should live together. Obviously, I said yes, but deep down, I knew he was just being silly.
What started as a joke between us became more and more real. Until one day we stopped joking about it and began searching for apartments. At first, we browsed through Zillow, looking at places we knew we couldn’t afford. I can’t tell you how many listings we hearted that were over our budget, but we were just two love birds searching for a home with absolutely no clue how to find one.
Then we looked through listings on Facebook and almost got scammed a couple of times. Never fall for it if they “can’t offer you a tour” or if they reply past midnight. No real rental companies would operate after hours. Lesson learned.
We were trying hard, but many of our search sessions ended with one of us saying, “I told you it was too good to be true.”
A couple of months into our search we attended UC Berkeley’s housing fair where we got a lot of helpful information that helped us find other companies to look at. Unfortunately, we still were not able to find our perfect fit.
Despite all of the losses, we remained hopeful and continued the search. One day, we came across UC Berkeley’s Off-Campus Housing Website, which listed a lot of apartments for rent in different price ranges. We quickly emailed a lot of places and began touring their apartments.
Although the apartments we visited were nice, they were all missing something. None of them felt like home.
Until we came across apartment number 21, I walked in and fell in love. The windows everywhere lit up the whole apartment. The kitchen had a beautiful island where I could see us eating dinner after a long day of classes. I saw us sitting by the window and looking out onto the tennis courts with the beautiful view in the background.
It was perfect. It felt like home.
I realize now that we are here that we were never looking for a place that felt like home, because home is wherever we are together. As my lovely boyfriend said, “What makes this place feel like home is you.” I agree wholeheartedly.
Moving out with the person you love is never too early or too late. If navigating the process of finding off-campus housing in college happens to lead you to live with the love of your life. Go for it and don’t let anyone tell you it shouldn’t be that way.