If you\u2019re a first-year student getting ready to move into an off-campus house, you\u2019re probably hoping for a kitchen that\u2019s functional. Well, I got a kitchen that isn\u2019t\u2014and three years later, it\u2019s the best thing that ever happened to me.<\/p>\n
It was in my tiny excuse of a kitchen where I first learned my housemate, Jadyn, refuses to speak for thirty minutes after she first wakes up. I only learned this in my third year living with her, as typically, by the time I\u2019m awake, she has been busy for hours\u2014having already made breakfast and gone to the gym.<\/p>\n
By the time I finally enter our cramped little kitchen, she\u2019s already cooking lunch and greets me with a sarcastic \u201cgood morning.\u201d In a remarkable coincidence, my other three housemates then come barreling in all at once, filling the kitchen until our shoulders are touching and the stove becomes invisible under a cluster of pots and pans. Whether this kitchen chaos results in laughter or tension is entirely dependent on who was eliminated on the reality competition show we watched the night before.<\/p>\n
Soon after, someone opens the mini-fridge and comes to the realization that Elle has forgetfully bought another carton of eggs, bringing our total egg supply to six cartons. I joke that we\u2019re well-stocked to egg a house, which then turns into an unrelated and unnecessarily passionate debate over which ex-boyfriend or failed friendship is most deserving.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Sami realizes that, in the heat of it all, she has allowed the latest attempt to replicate her Nonna\u2019s gnocchi to burn, and we all join in on desperately fanning the smoke to avoid another false fire alarm fiasco.<\/p>\n
Over the years, dinner has tended to be more peaceful. We usually cook at different times, except for Sunday nights, when there is often an intentional effort to have some sort of family meal. We all rush to claim a seat on the couch, as whoever arrives last is forced to sit on the floor, filled with regrets of having auctioned off our table in order to buy more posters and string lights.<\/p>\n
On such nights, it would likely make sense to have one person cook for all five of us, but nothing in our kitchen makes sense\u2014and I think we all secretly prefer the chaos.<\/p>\n
After the evening rush, the kitchen typically remains quiet, with the exception of the toaster, as a buttered bagel is considered a midnight delicacy in our house. This calm, however, is quickly shattered on Friday nights, during which the kitchen acts as one of those sleazy back rooms you see at clubs, the ones in which all the girls seem a little too drunk. Carey yells out a promise that she\u2019ll be \u201cso-o-o-o fine\u201d as she opens yet another cooler.<\/p>\n
We all know that she isn\u2019t going to be fine, but the same could be said about any of us. Regardless, we\u2019re all equally excited to take part in the blaze of glory that will indubitably end with a thousand and one unclaimed cups in the kitchen sink.<\/p>\n
Over the past three years, my housemates often suggested moving. They\u2019ve had dreams of finding a kitchen with more counter space, or maybe even a functioning, normal-sized fridge. They lamented having to regularly check the mouse trap behind the microwave and took little joy in the constant discovery of concealed mold in the crevices of our cabinets. This wasn\u2019t helped by our landlord raising our rent, oblivious to any ethical dilemmas in charging students more than a grand for a half-broken stove.<\/p>\n
To me, however, our kitchen is perfect. It\u2019s where our mismatched schedules finally collide, even if it\u2019s only for a brief moment. It\u2019s where we\u2019ve haphazardly iced a thousand birthday cakes, mixed enough barely-drinkable cocktails to sink a ship, and once decorated our floor with a mountain of bubbles\u2014leading to the infamous realization that dish soap and dishwasher detergent are not in fact interchangeable.<\/p>\n
Most vividly, it\u2019s where I was first brought to tears by the overwhelming love I have for the women in my life.<\/p>\n
So, here\u2019s the deal first-years; no matter what you\u2019re paying for your student house, I can almost guarantee that you\u2019ll have your own \u201ctiny kitchen.\u201d This is student housing in Kingston, after all. It may take the form of a cramped living room, a packed mudroom, or even an unfinished basement. But wherever the space and whatever the problem, my message remains the same: lean into the absurd.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying you shouldn\u2019t demand better from your landlord when a problem is fixable; you have to advocate for yourself whenever possible. But for those unfixable problems\u2014thin walls that simply can\u2019t be made thicker, or an oversized table that you brought up the stairs and now can\u2019t bring back down\u2014don\u2019t let them ruin your day. It\u2019s nice to wake up to the sound of your housemates giggling, and one day that table might help you host a great Friendsgiving dinner.<\/p>\n
Living with four other twenty-year-olds can be a tricky minefield to navigate, but if you try to let the struggles of it bring you together, rather than tear you apart, you\u2019re off to a good start.<\/p>\n
Tags<\/p>\n
\n friendship<\/a>, Postscript<\/a>, Student life<\/a> <\/p>\n All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and\/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re a first-year student getting ready to move into an off-campus house, you\u2019re probably hoping for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[24094,9,24,63,11831,122,124,123,23347],"class_list":["post-109738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-friendship","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-postscript","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}