The Eviction Notice
A piece of paper pushed me down an unchosen path, complete with lessons to learn.
Welcome back to 28 Seasons: Seven Years, Lived, my collection of essays about my life between the ages of 18 and 25. Those 28 seasons were a blend of drama, fun, heartbreak, and (many) teachable moments.
28 Seasons: Seven Years Lived is a collection reserved for paying subscribers of my Atelier. You can think of this as you buying me a coffee each month and in return, I share some of my most personal lore with you. Totally worth it. ✨🩷
THE EVICTION NOTICE
* — name has been changed
In the space between eighteen and twenty, I really felt like a full-ass adult. Classic I know everything vibes. During my 78th season, I moved into an apartment with a girl worked with Texas Roadhouse, Sam*. We snagged what could barely pass as a 2-bedroom apartment. We lived close to the restaurant and our apartment quickly became a third place for our friends and co-workers. It was a classic first apartment — you know, a many nights I will never remember with people I will never forget type of place. I felt like I was on top of the world.
Except, in reality, I really wasn’t. I was basically flunking out of school because I wasn’t mature enough to handle the responsibility of it all. I considered an academic pause but ultimately decided to enroll in the local community college instead. My plan was to take a lighter course load, work more, and earn my way back into the university I did eventually graduate from, albeit nearly a decade later. At least I had a my job, my apartment, and my friends… right?
I wish I could tell that sweet summer child she had no idea what she was in for, but knowing my younger self, she would have balked at the very notion.
Do we ever truly realize what life will be like for us, beyond turning twenty? Or how the seemingly smallest choices or people we blindly trust can and will impact our futures in a big way? I definitely didn’t, nor could I have predicted the slingshot that sent me careening into the next decade of my life. If my younger self would listen to anything, I wish it would be this: you will get through this, and you will have the time of your life after you clear the hurdles.
