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Kathryn Bogle
Day 28 without internet. I have yet to get a couch, my roommate may have adead rat in her wall, and we are afraid to use the garbage disposal because we (mayhave) dropped a spoon into it. I wake up stiff every morning, and I haveresorted to couponing to buy all my groceries. I do my best to keep a mentalreminder to unplug everything when not in use to save money on the electricbill. I want to challenge the stigma that the life of a college student is ablur of parties and freedom; the life I have experienced, one month intoadulthood, consists of unemployment, awkward phone calls, and acting like Iknow how to file taxes, and pretending to know the rules of a credit card.
Free doesn’t always mean easy.
My story begins in the small town of Fairfield, located about two hours fromhere, where I grew up surrounded by pastures, grazing cows, and barbed-wirefences. In a town of only 3,000 people, I graduated with the same class I hadgone to school with my entire life, seeing the same faces everywhere I went. Iworked at the local sandwich shop where I became a manager at age 17 and spentmost of my time transitioning from school to work and back again. I becamefairly independent at a young age, striving to learn new ways to provide formyself and prepare for a life of my own. Knowledgeable of the fact that stayingwhere I was would get me nowhere, however, I escaped the land of no opportunityto one where my voice could be heard, leaving everybody behind to move forward,and in turn, I wound up here. The only word I can use to describe this firstmonth into adulthood would be… interesting. Certainly not what I expected, butnot terrible either.
Thank God for data plans. I have yet to find an internet plan cheap enoughnot to send me over the edge in monthly debt, so I have resorted to trying tohack the neighbors’ connection, driving to the nearest coffee shop to connectto their free Wi-Fi, or at the last resort, using my phone’s mobile hotspot toconnect to and finish my homework. A life without the internet would not besuch a struggle for me if everything in this world didn’t revolve around it. Itried to apply for jobs in person: they told me to go online and apply. I triedto handwrite my homework papers: my professors told me I had to type and printevery single assignment. I tried to sign up for classes to attend in person:they made me buy an online code to do most of the work I needed to submit. Ijust want to live the simple life of a minimalist, only using what I need, butthat turns out to be more difficult than I imagined. Technology is convenient,I agree, but what about people without access to it?
The dead rat in my roommate’s wall may or may not be a tripping anelectrical wire. Maybe a rat tried chewing through a wire in the wall,resulting in what we now know as dead-fried rat. That theory is not tooirrational, and her half of the house smells like death being cooked.Maintenance has yet to contact us, so we are basically sitting ducks.Hopefully, they decide to get here soon.
Adulthood is certainly an adventure. A weird, random, hit-and-missadventure. Let’s see where this goes.