I'm All Moved In!
1:04 PMIt is now officially the next morning after moving back up to Bellingham and into my new dorm. Needless to say, yesterday was an incredibly stressful day. My heart was beating hard in my chest in anticipation on the drive up, just because I didn't know what to expect, how the room would look, if we would move everything in and get settled okay... And it was just nerve-wracking to be moving back up to school again after a long summer.
Part of me also knew that I would yet again be away from Mom, which would be very hard, especially after spending practically every waking minute together this whole summer. So this was it. This was the start of a new school year. Back to being two hours away from Mom, on my own in Bellingham. I knew I would be more used to it this time around, but it still felt so weird, and nerve-wracking to be going back, yet also a little thrilling at the same time.
I knew this time around would be a little better, though, since I was no longer living in Fairhaven, but Buchanan Towers, which is probably the nicest place to live near Western, yet still far enough away from campus that you feel a bit more on your own. Plus, it's not just some cramped little room like my old room in Fairhaven. Besides our bedroom, it also promised a common living area to share with our suitemates, and best of all, a kitchen (which is why I've been trying to practice cooking this summer). I also heard claims of high vaulted ceilings on the 8th floor, which is where my room is, so I was so excited and anxious to see my room. I couldn't contain myself as we drove up to the tall, inviting brick building.
The night before and even earlier the morning we left, me and Mom were scrambling about, frantically making sure everything was all packed and strapped down securely in the back of the truck. But when we pulled up and were beginning to unload all my stuff, we were surprised at how efficient the moving volunteers were at unpacking everything for us and loading it up on this wheel thing. As they were quickly unloading, one of the girls was so chipper and friendly. With a smile on her face, she told me to check in while they took care of my stuff. By the time I checked myself in, got my keys, and came back out, they were all ready to wheel my stuff up to my room. We packed ourselves into the elevator and went up to the 8th floor (thank god for elevators.) and I led them to my room at the end of the hall. After fumbling a bit with my keys until finding the right one that unlocked my door, they wheeled everything inside and that was that! They basically wished my happy packing and kindly showed themselves out to move onto the next person who would need their assistance. But I mean, thank god they were there to help! They probably did all of that in the span of, what, 6 minutes? It felt like it, at least. I can't imagine how long it would've taken if me and Mom had taken multiple trips lugging everything up ourselves. I immediately felt like I was in a good place, among good people.
Once the volunteers left and I properly inspected my room, I'll admit it was a little smaller than I was expecting. I guess in my head I had a vision of a roomy common living area that was a lot more luxurious. That's always how it goes, though. Haha, everything always looks ten times better in your head. Overall, though, it was a MAJOR step up from my cramped, dark room in Fairhaven. Thankfully my other three roommates moved in a couple days before me, so I was saved all of that mayhem. I can't imagine what it would've been like if all four of us were trying to move in at the same time. After inspecting the common area, I went in to look at my bedroom, and immediately I was so pleased. I think our bedroom by itself was larger than the entire room I had at Fairhaven. The room is so long, so there's a ton of space to move around, and we have high, vaulted ceilings! I'm serious, the ceilings are insane! And there are some ceilings high up on the wall that let in plenty of light, not to mention the two smaller windows by our beds that make the room plenty airy and not so suffocating. The other thing that is so nice about our room is that we have three wardrobes! One whole wardrobe is reserved for each of us on either side, and we split the middle wardrobe right down the middle for even more space. This made packing so much nicer. Unpacking all my clothes would've been a breeze if it hadn't been for the fact that I didn't quite pack as many hangers as I needed. Woops! It's okay, though, because I brought a lot of thick sweaters that don't get easily wrinkled when they're folded up, so I just saved hangers by folding most of my sweaters into one of the drawers. As was expected, unpacking everything was still incredibly stressful despite the ample closet space, just because that's how unpacking goes. I plowed right through it, getting everything unpacked that night, and I had a major headache to prove it. I think it was also the enormous amount of stress I was feeling, too. Thankfully, sleeping it off helped and I'm much better today.
Once I got most everything packed, Mom thought it would be nice for us to have a break, so we went down to the local Starbucks not far away and had one last snack between the two of us. We talked about how much better the two of us felt about moving me in this year. She admitted that last year when she left me in that small room by myself, she felt so awful, she teared up on the drive home. That really made me sad to know about that, but I felt better that this time around we were both happy and Mom would feel much better on her drive home this time. After Starbucks, we decided to go into the local grocery store, Haggens, and pick up a few things we'd forgotten to pack like hot chocolate and milk and noodles for spaghetti. We came back up to my room and packed those away, and once I was mostly all settled in I knew it was time for her to go soon. I walked her out and down to her car and we hugged and kissed goodbye. I knew I'd miss her a lot, and I still do as I'm writing this. But I do feel much better this time around. It's no longer quite as scary, and I know it won't feel that much longer before I'll see her again. There was a little moment as she left and I began walking back to the building, where I thought, She's really gone. I'm on my own now. That hit me a little bit, but still, it didn't feel quite as gut-wrenching as last year. I knew this routine by now. I knew I'd be okay.
So here I am the next day! I felt like it took me a long time to fall asleep last night, but it could've just been the fact that I was sleeping in a new place. I always have a bit of difficulty sleeping somewhere new and unfamiliar, like hotels and such. And it could be that my mind was still overwhelmed by everything that happened that day. Now that I've gotten to explore the place a little more, I'm also pretty nervous about cooking dinner here like I had planned to do. Our oven/stove looks seriously ancient and not like our oven/stove at home, so it'll need some getting used to. Gah, my biggest fear is that I'll do something wrong and cause the fire alarm to go off and everyone will have to evacuate because of me. And, uh, there are 8 floors of people, so I can't afford to screw up! I don't even know how to work the knobs or which way is high and low. *sigh* Hopefully I'll get used to it. I'm sure once I practice with my first dinner, I'll get to learn the ropes.
Well, it's 12:56 and I'm not quite sure what to do. I dawdled around in the morning, reading my book and waiting for someone to say, "Hey, let's do this!" But mostly everyone did their own thing. I don't even know who's still here right now. I can't tell if my suitemates are just holed up in their room or if everyone left..? I think two might still be in their room and not wanting to come out, but I can't imagine because you'd think they'd come out to eat breakfast. Erg, I don't know what to do. I was thinking of walking down to main campus today and renewing my bus pass, since you have to renew it every school year. And I'm definitely going to be utilizing the bus this quarter because I believe there's a bus that stops right in front of our building that takes you down to main campus. That would be perfect for me because it would take no time at all, save so much time walking, and stop me right where I need to be. Argh, bus schedules. I'm also going to have to figure that out... It's a good thing I have a couple of days before class starts to figure all of this out! Okay, I think I'm going to end this and go explore now.
x Danielle
1 comments
Great blog my dear! I've been reading your entries & whatnot, hehe. Congrats also to your mom getting that job, I hope she's enjoying it. Hope school is going well! xx
ReplyDelete