As is the norm once people hit their junior year of college, I moved out of the dorms and into a real house.

I guess you can say I'm "adulting," which basically means I'm doing actual adult-like things and taking on adult-like responsibilities. I promised myself I'd never turn into that boring old person, but honestly, I'm kinda OK with that right now. I wake up at 7:30 in the morning (this is earlier than the school year...crazy, right?), make breakfast and lunch, brew up a fresh cup of coffee, go to work, come back, empty the dish washer and put my stuff away, relax for an hour, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up dinner, relax, and go to bed. Yeah, I know, pretty exciting stuff. So, here's a generalized list of stuff that I've had to learn about growing up and leaving the nest for good.

1. Paying bills

So, I know this is kinda like a "duh" thing, but honestly, it's hard to remember when things are due! Thank goodness for automated bill pay. You also need to remind your other housemates to pay their share so everyone is contributing equally, so it's a process to figure out who owes what and reminding them for days beforehand when they got to get their money in.

2. Starting service

Then, there's the actual setting up process to pay the bills. You have to start your service, pick which service you want, create an account, give them a bank to take money from and then remember when they want that money from you.

3. Making your own food

I seriously thought about doing a whole separate article on this and I probably will. All those years of complaining about Saga? Yeah, you'll miss those nights when all you want to do is eat a frozen pizza because you're too lazy to cook something edible.

4. Learning about food in general

I don't know if you're like me, but I love Pinterest and looking up good recipes to try. I made my own recipe book and was so excited to start making them.

It becomes apparent though, that not all recipes are college-budget-friendly, such as constantly making fancy salads that require fancy cheese other than a block of cheddar, or certain seasonings or spices that you know you'll only use once. Also, I've thrown a whole pack of chicken out because I didn't know that it expired within days of purchase without being tossed in the freezer, or even that ground beef goes bad after just ONE day! It's a learning process, kids.

5. Calling your mom way more than you did in the dorms

Not because "I miss you" type things, but mostly quick things like: "Mom, how long do I cook a baked potato?" "Mom, how do I clean this?" "Mom, how do I bleach a shirt?" That kind of stuff. Moms do so much and without Google and my mom, I wouldn't know that eggs need to be covered in water, boil, and then sit for 20-22 minutes so that the yoke isn't runny.

6. Calling your dad way more than you normally do

Again, not because I want to talk for half an hour, but more along the lines of "Dad, how do I pay this bill?" "Dad, what's the log in for my bank account?" or even, "Dad, I need my social security number." Those darn nine digits really get to you when you're trying to live in the real world. Memorize it, ASAP. It'll save you a heck of a lot of phone calls and text messages.

7. Grocery shopping

Going back to the whole food thing, unfortunately food doesn't magically appear on our plates when we want them to.

We need to go to the store and pick out what we want and that usually involves weaving our way through aisles to find a particular product only to return to the aisle you were just in for another thing that you need. It helps to go shopping with a housemate so you can plan together for bigger items you both might need, like, mayonnaise for example. You don't need three separate jars of mayo sitting in the fridge. Whoops.

8. Budgeting

Yep, the dreaded "b" word that every girl who loves shopping hates to hear. I myself, still suck at budgeting. For the summer, I've set myself a $250 dollar budget to meet each month and well, the first, month, let's just say that I started adhering to the budget this month. Seriously, figure out how much rent and utilities will cost, what you estimate on food, gas, and other random expenses, and then seriously work to stick to it. Find ways to cut down on small things, like food. If you live in the PNW, Winco is your best friend. Food is super cheap and still the same good brands and quality that you'll find at Fred Meyer.

9. Not seeing your friends on a daily basis

Sure, you'll live with some, but it's unlikely you'll be living with all your closest friends from your dorm. It's a hard adjustment when you're so used to living next door to someone. Now we have to actually make plans to see each other and then get in a car/bike and ride over to their house which can be up to five minutes away. I'm not normally a huge texter, but I've become more of one ever since I can't just lean over and tell someone something and we can't take spur-of-the-moment trips to Atilanos for breakfast burritos at 12:30 am.

10. More alone time than ever

Kinda piggy-backing onto my last point, but still, it's so quiet. Sometimes it's just me in the house and I'll turn on all the lights and throw on some Netflix just to avoid the quiet. It's nice sometimes, especially when I'm tired or need to concentrate, but only for so long before I crave human interaction again. It's not like the dorms where your neighbors are yelling at each other from their rooms across the hall and someone's jumping on your ceiling and another is blasting their bass below you.

11. Free laundry

Well, kinda. At least I don't have to pay $1 every time I needed to wash something and then an extra $.75 to dry. Now, I pay for soap and fabric sheets, which works out a lot better for my wallet and my convenience. No more lugging a full hamper down two flights of stairs only to find all the crappy machines in use, or sometimes worse, having to take out someone else's laundry because it's been sitting for two days.

12. Nicer beds

For my house, I got a new queen-sized bed and it's been heavenly. No more old, floppy, stained twin mattresses for me! It's actually super nice to just be able to sprawl onto my bed, my very own bed, and just relax on it. Even if it's a twin or a full, seriously, almost anything will be better than 10 + year old mattresses.

13. Cleaning...Everything

It's one thing to do chores at home, it's another to spruce up a dorm room, but it's a whole other story when you have an entire house to clean. How do you split up the work? How often should the oven be cleaned? What about the floors, windows, even the toilets? In the dorms, your entire bathroom was cleaned on average at least once a week. It got pretty gross even the day after it was freshly Lysoled. Now, it's just me and my housemate and our bathroom generally makes it to the end of the week without too many hiccups, and we get to clean it all ourselves, including the shower.

14. Remembering you still have other people living with you

Working in a small kitchen when three other people are also trying to cook makes it a Tetris game for sure. I've got boiling water on the stove while someone else has a pizza in the oven and another is chopping veggies on the counter tops. The sink gets full, dishes must be done, and other people are to be kept in mind. I can't be blasting the TV when my housemate is trying to do homework and they in turn shouldn't hog the bathroom when I need to get ready for bed. It's a new balancing act of having your own space and having a shared space as well.

15. How you actually spend more time on campus than you originally thought

Now, granted, I have a job on campus for the summer, so I literally spend a majority of my day on Whitworth property, and honestly, I'm not complaining. There's a reason why I chose the school that I did, and I still love being a part of it. Sure, I'm not officially living there, but I might as well still be. I walk past my old dorms and see how things are changing, I'll still buy a cup of coffee from Mind & Hearth, I ride my bike down the Hello Walk and admire the blooming flower baskets, I get swoll at the URec, and I still stop to talk to peers on my way to the HUB.

Whitworth is still home to me, even though my address may say differently, and I don't think that'll change. The campus is still familiar to me. Yes, it's going to be different when school starts up again and I'll miss certain aspects of the dorms, such as the communities that were formed there. Of course, some people still choose to live on campus even after their sophomore year, and there's nothing wrong with that at all! I thought about it for a while, musing over the things that made living there so great, such as instant food whenever I swiped, constantly being surrounded by people, and the flexibility of being only a five minute walk away from class. There's pluses and minuses to both options, and everyone is different! I love living in my own house where it's really mine and it's definitely been a learning process full of mistakes, but a good one nevertheless.