Personal Narrative: Momma Doesn T Live Here

Momma Doesn’t Live Here

One of the biggest learning periods in my life occurred during the first few months of my freshman year in college. Up until that time I thought I knew how to take care of myself and how to handle certain situations, but what I learned was it was all much harder than I had thought. I learned that without my safety net, aka my mom, things didn’t run as smoothly as I was used to. Everything from laundry to budgeting to how I spent my time took on a whole new meaning. Those first few weeks of college I got an education in real life and how to take care of things myself.
The first lesson I learned was in the laundry room. I remember thinking that it was a no brainer. I had watched my mom and even helped her do it hundreds of times. I knew that all whites went together and all darks went together. Easy right? What I didn’t realize was just how sneaky socks can be. I knew they had a tendency to get lost in the dryer, but I didn’t know they could hide in small places in the wrong pile. I learned that lesson the hard way when a red sock “hid” in my load of whites. When I opened the washer, everything was pink. I mean really pink. It looked like a giant load of pajamas. That is when I learned the true value of bleach and fortunately after a couple rewashes, my clothes

were mostly back to white. Another lesson from the laundry room was that too many clothes in one load combined with too much detergent will cause a washer to overflow and be out of service for a week. I now buy premeasured laundry pods and wash smaller loads.
The next lesson I learned during this time was in the area of money. I have never been an over-spender, but at the same time I have never had to worry about saving my money or not have any money. If I wanted something at the spur of the moment, I would buy it and then just get more cash from my mom or dad. If some friends wanted to see a movie and I didn’t have any money I would simply ask mom. Here at Troy, my mom is 2 ½ hours away. I can’t just pop in her bedroom and ask for some money. I learned really quickly that if I wanted to go out on Friday, I had better save money Monday thru Thursday. During this time, I learned that when it comes to spending, there is a big difference between what I wanted and what I needed.
The final big area of learning for me those first few months was in the area of time management.

There was no mom or dad to remind me what time it was or what time I needed to leave, or that I had a paper due. There was no one to come behind me and clean up or straighten up my mess because I had waited until the last minute to try and do everything. There was no one to run to Walmart late at night to get ink for my printer while I finished the presentation that was due the next morning. I had to learn, and I did that my time was valuable. Now that I was responsible for so many things on my own, I couldn’t afford to waste one second being lazy or

procrastinating.
Moving away from home and starting college is always an exciting time filled with many new experiences. For me it was a time of learning more than just academic. It was a time to learn to take care of myself and do the normal everyday task on my own. I learned I needed to grow up and be responsible for myself. More importantly I learned that I could do just that. I could take care of myself and my responsibilities. It might not get done the way my mom would have done it. It might not look the way hers would, but that was all right. I was doing it on my own, and it felt pretty good.