I had a “grown-up moment” when I was 25. I got on a bus to downtown Seattle, looked up the addresses of potential apartments, and knew that would be the day that I would find a home where I would live alone. I had been living with my cousin in Lynnwood, a suburban town north of Seattle, where rent was free, but also far from my job that was near Lake Union.

I wanted to be out on my own, take on that big step of actually living by myself, no roommates, just me in this brand new city. The possibilities were endless, well, almost endless, I had to keep my rent under $1000 a month, and even that was a financial stretch.

After looking at some scary low-income places in Pioneer Square (not knowing any better) I headed up to Belltown and found my studio at Fountain Court Apartments. It seemed safe, and the leasing office ladies seemed really nice.

I lived right above the fountain, which was actually quite soothing and helped drown out the noise of the nearby fire station. My studio was small, and cost $960 a month. There was a small gym, hot tub, and a party room, I was sold!

My mini hallway, to the left is in unit laundry (score) to the right is the bathroom, across from the clock and table on the left is a very small closet, to the right, just past the table is the doorway to my kitchen.

Small, but fully functioning kitchen with a dishwasher! (though I rarely used it because it was just me!)

I separated my “bedroom” from my “living room” by using this Ikea bookshelf, which also helped with storage.

my bed felt like it was in a cave, I loved it.

I was really lucky that my cousin had an extra couch in her garage that had a pull-out bed, this meant I could even invite out of town guests to stay with me! I was stoked.

I learned a lot by living alone. It was probably one of the happiest and sometimes loneliest time in my life. Moving to a city where I knew no one, getting an apartment by myself, and trying to make it on my own was a dream, but also a lot to take on for a girl who had just turned 25. I remember one of the first things I did when I got my apartment was to get a tv, a cable package and a Wii. The game system was brand new then, and I knew I wanted one in case I got bored and could potentially connect my Wii with my ex-boyfriend’s back in DC. We were still acting like we could be friends then, that didn’t last long.

There are pros and cons to living alone in your twenties, here’s what I learned:

PROS:

-Everything in the apartment belongs to you, there’s no such thing as sharing or worrying about ruining other people’s stuff.

First piece of furniture I bought for myself!

-The mess is all yours, no getting annoyed at other people leaving crap all over the place.

-Privacy and no judgments. If I was seeing a guy, I got to decide if he stayed or left, no checking in with roommates.

-Being naked whenever you want. Nuf said.

-A general feeling of freedom. Hard to explain, but living alone just feels like freedom.

CONS:

-You pay all the bills by yourself. Splitting cable, garbage, and other utilities was awesome. When the entire bill falls in your lap, not so cool.

-Loneliness. Sometimes just having people around in your house feels reassuring, living alone takes that away.

sometimes it was just me and the tv.

- You could die and no one would know right away! Chocking on something could totally kill you because no roommates would be there to give you the Heimlich, that was a real concern of mine.

Um those are the only Cons I really saw. The Pros totally outweighed them and I really loved living alone.  Finding the love of my life while living in that apartment is an added bonus. I think because I had enough time to figure myself out a bit and be able to feel so independent I became a better person. A person who John liked and feel for. At least that’s what I like to tell myself. It was a magical little apartment, and it was the perfect time for me to live alone.

Have you ever lived alone? What were your pros and cons?

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