Arriving in San Marcos, TX

       I made the 2,000 mile trek to San Marcos, TX and arrived at the apartment that I found on a website. I was taking over the rest of a guys lease so that he could do his internship in Colorado for the summer. The guy moving out whose spot I was taking, had already paid for his half of the place for May and the lease ended in June. I figured worst case scenario, if things didn't work out, I would only be on the hook for half of one months rent and I could go back home to MA and say at least I tried without much risk of financial ruin to myself. Turns out though, that my roommate had just recently started a new job, and the pay he was promised was not what he received from his employer. So while I got a job working as a server and a job driving for Lyft, he was not paying the office his part of the rent. A few days into June and here I am already getting an eviction notice even though I paid my half of the rent right on time. What a wonderful first experience of not living with my parents anymore. I get to worry about a dead beat roommate not paying his portion of the rent. I knew right then and there that I needed to find a place on my own. 

       My first roommate experience was a terrible one. Fortunately, I was able to line up a studio apartment in a different part of town for $580 a month starting July 1st. I pleaded with the office to not evict us and asked what I could do to stop the process since I already had paid my part on time. They told me that I had to pay the whole $935 since it was a joint lease to stop the eviction. I didn't have that kind of money since I only moved out there with $1,500 and hadn't collected any pay from my brand new jobs. I told them that I had just gotten two jobs, paid my part on time, and had another place lined up at the end of the month because we were moving out anyways. Thankfully, they took pity on me since they knew I had literally just moved out there and was in a tough spot. Instead of ruining my credit and having an eviction on my rental history, they told me that as long as I was out, if my roommate didn't pay his portion, they would put everything on him and leave me out of it. I was so relieved! I learned a lot from that experience though and I will never repeat that mistake again! 

       After stuffing my whole life back into my Kia Soul and crashing on a coworkers couch for the night, I arrived at my new apartment the next day. I found out that the unit I was going to originally be leasing wasn't ready though. Apparently the tenant who was living in it before me was a hoarder, so they ended up putting me in an adjacent unit on the back side of that building because they needed more time to clean out that unit. I moved all my stuff into that little 400 sq. ft. apartment and blew up my air mattress to sleep on. This was my new home for at least the next 9 months and I was going to make the most of it. 

       The summer time was great for the restaurant I was working at. I was bringing in good money and was living very humbly to cut my expenses. My furniture consisted of a collapsible camping chair and a $10 two pack of end tables from Walmart. One was my computer desk/dinner table and the other was my night stand next to my air mattresses. After saving up a little bit of money, I was able to afford a cheap laptop so I could apply to new jobs and I was able to get a real bed on a Labor Day blowout sale. I finally felt like I was gaining some traction and getting somewhere living on my own. I finally had a real bed, one I didn't have to blow into every few days to keep my back from screaming in the morning due to it slowly get softer as the days passed. I applied for a job selling timeshares and I got hired. I was on top of the world! I finally had a job that had huge earning potential after only being in Texas for a couple of months and I was so excited for my first day of training.