First day at *my* condo (retro-posting, didn't have internet)

If you ask me how it feels like to have your own place, it's like being the boss and having to answer no one, except the property management, the security people, the lender, the insurance... and well, you get the picture.

Whatever happiness I am feeling, I think, is completely irrational - much like having a craving. I mean, even if the food quality is consistent, one feels extra-happy and it's extra-delicious when it's satisfying a craving. Living in this condo doesn't differ much from renting it - I'm paying the same amount as if I'm paying the rent. However, somehow, in the back of my mind, it makes me happy that I'm paying for myself.

Thinking back to 10, 15 years ago, owning a house and working full-time seemed so distant and impossible. I remember a time in elementary school when I looked up to my sister who was in high school and wondered what it felt like to be grown up and going to high school - how it seemed far away, and if I'd ever get there, what it'll be like.

Little do I know, school years just click away automatically, the system being so good at bumping people up - and all of a sudden, you're thrown into the workforce, and all of a sudden, you have student debt, insurance and pay stubs and tax returns.

All of a sudden, after speaking a couple of month of real-estate lingo, you're acquainted with different neighbourhoods (sherbourne-dundas bad), builder names, squarefootage, ceiling height, open-close-fixed-variable-1-2-3-5-10-years, offers-counter-offers-bidding-wars, maintenance, and all the things you didn't care about when people were talking about them (same thing happens when people talk about their new car and their wedding plan. no one gives two shits unless they're involved or are planning/just did the same thing).

All of a sudden, even the laziest person I know (myself), has a box in the sky and a mortgage. I mean, if I can do it....