Narrative Essay

William Lee

Professor Ann Modzelewski

English 101

25 January 2016

Essay One: Moving Out

Although the unemployment rate has been decreasing, and correspondingly, salaries rising; the age that young adults move out seems to be rising. According to a new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data released last year by the Pew Research Center, more of young adults between the ages 18 to 34 are choosing, at least temporarily, to live in their family homes (Osborn, “A Millennial's Guide to Moving Out of Your Parent's House”). In spite of this, I seem to be an outlier. Last September, I made a life changing decision to move out of my home and to a new reasonably familiar home. When I moved out I learned that, the choices that I make, affect the way I live my life, the people around me, and how I feel about things.

To begin, let me tell you about myself. I am a second generation Asian-American male, meaning I have a rather askew view on the world compared to my parents, who are first generation Asians. I always thought, and still think that, your parents should support you as you are their child, whether it be monetary or basic needs. Since they had the pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality, whereas I had a more easygoing attitude; we never really got along. It’s also important to note that, my parents weren’t able to spend much time with my sister or I. My dad worked for USPS while my mom worked in the food service for the Edmonds school district. On top of that, on the side they did real-estate. Therefore, we didn’t really spend much time as a family. Which, forced to my sister and I to learn to be more independent. Throughout my life, I had a negative attitude towards school or rather, America’s education system. To me, school was a waste of time. On the other hand, my parents believe you need to do well in school to do well in life. They always said, “Do well in school, go to a good university, get a good degree, and a good well-paying job.” However, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. For instance, look at the some of the great technological tycoons: Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Michael Dell; they all ended up dropping out of their respective universities. Of course, they say in response, “that’s different, they were geniuses.” Unfortunately, this clashing idea of education and lack of family bonds led to me moving out prematurely on Tuesday, November 10, 2015.  

From time to time, I’ve thought about moving out. However, on that fateful morning on November 10th, I had no idea I was going to be moving out. I wake up at 8am and ready for work as usual. I roll out of bed, take a shower, brush my teeth, and eat breakfast. I then walk out the door and proceed to walk to the bus-stop. I hop on the bus and about one hour later, I arrive at work, The UPS Store. It’s a small family owned store. There are shelves on the side wall that carry retail like, envelopes, garment boxes, etc. and there’s large heavy duty printers on the other wall. The back of the store is full of various sized boxes; ranging from 6x6x6 – 40x40x40. In general, it’s a nicely organized, customer friendly store. I haven’t worked there long and I wasn’t paid extremely well but, my boss was nice and I had flexible hours; so I had nothing to complain about. At work, I have various duties, some of which, are not as important as others. One such duty, which I find more annoying than most. This duty is the pack jobs; for UPS there is standard requirements for packing something for it to be insured for package’s full value. This requirement is that, the package must be in a box and have 2 or more inches of packing material around it. This is tedious, because more often than not, we don’t have a perfect box size for it and it makes packing all that much more difficult. The other duties are fairly basic ones relating to a stores associate; I would have to clean, help customers, file things, etc. It’s nothing too difficult so I get payed $9.50 per hour; a bit over the minimum wage. As a result, I seem to be more aware of how much money I spend and how much I save. Although I don’t get paid very much, saving even a little bit goes a long way. In fact, I wouldn’t be able to afford school if I didn’t save. At the store, we provide mailboxes to rent; most of the people who rent them use them for their businesses. I always find it interesting to hear about different businesses and how successful they are. After an easy day of work, I take the bus home and when I arrive home around 4pm my mom is already getting on my case about school. Although I was working, I decided to take a quarter off from school and my mom seemed to disapprove. After arguing with her and my father, I get a phone call from my buddy to go out and eat with his mom. We went to Pho, which I’m not fond of but, I eat it anyway since all my friends seem to like it. During the drive back towards my house, his mom asks if I would like to move in with them. With things stressful at home, I would be a fool to refuse. As soon as I get home, I begin packing. I don’t have a lot of things due to the fact my parents didn’t buy me anything and almost everything I own I have bought myself. As I go through my things I feel nostalgia when I remember why I got them and how they effected my life. I’m not a picture guy however, the few pictures I have are meaningful to me, and hence I felt greater nostalgia of when they were taken. Sooner or later, my mom comes in my room and asks why I am packing all my things. To put it simply, I said, “I’m moving out. I’m done.” As a result, my mom seemed worried but, left me to finish packing. A couple hours later, around 9pm, I load my belongings into the car and drive away. I look back to see my old home fade into the darkness of the night.