Doesn't Anybody Stay in One Place Anymore?

Sing it, Carole King.

I might have to move again.

Just when I thought I had gotten settled and decorated my room to the point where I didn't need to tape anything else up or move anything else around. My roommates just bought a new house for themselves. They mentioned that they were looking for one when I signed the lease, but I was in denial about it for a while. Congratulations to them, but friggin A for me. I have two options:

1. Take over the lease and find two new roommates and take care of rent for the rest of the time I'm here.

2. Find a new place to live.

There is opportunity in both options. If I take over the lease, I can charge my two potential roommates more and ultimately pay less rent for myself. But at the same time, I'm only going to be here for a year and don't really want to handle rent for a property I don't plan to keep. Also, with my roommates moving out, there won't be any other furniture around at all other than that in my room, nor kitchen supplies. I'd have to invest in some of that.

If I find a new place, I could move downtown into Silver Spring or College Park. There would be younger people there. And much more to do. Right now, downtown D.C. and Silver Spring are accessible to me via the metro and my car. The small town I technically live in, Wheaton, is like a Santa Ana of sorts. Lots of families, not too much of a commercial district, not too many younger people in general. People go outside of Wheaton to hang out. No one really wants to come here to hang out, if you catch my drift.

So I looked around, and I found some awesome listings in downtown Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and College Park for cheaper rent than what I'm paying now. Plus furnishings. And possibly younger roommates, not that I have beef with the ones I have now, but it's always nice to live with people around your age.

Anyway, this week I'm going to be scoping out new places to live. I talked to my roommates, and they're going to try to negotiate something with the current landlord to see if I can stay and not have to take over the lease. We'll see how that goes. I'm going to keep my options open. Once again I run the risk of skewing my perception of Home.

But I've never run into any challenges without coming out all the better for it. So you're on, Life. Let's write this next chapter.