Petras\’ Corner

            Throughout most of high school I always wanted to move out of my parent’s house and be on my own. For some people, their parents kick them out when they turn eighteen with absolutely no say in it. My father wasn’t going to kick me out so I didn’t have to worry about that, but I wanted to move out of the Duluth/Superior area and start my own life. I felt that I was ready to work full time and pay for everything. Only a few months after graduating from Superior High School, I moved down to Las Vegas with my girlfriend. I ended up living in Las Vegas for a year before moving back in with my father at home. After that long year of struggling, I now have a new higher level of respect for people who move out and end up moving back in with their parents. Living on your own was exactly what I expected it to be, so that’s not what hurt us. It was the fact, that we moved half way across the country with very little money, living in a much larger city, and the fact that we were only eighteen years old.

            While living in Superior, I only worked at K-Mart for a year and had only saved up a couple thousand. The cost of living in Las Vegas was more than I thought it would be. We were paying over $1300 a month for everything at this extended stay suite, but later found an apartment for $900 a month across the street. At the time we were both making between $10-13 an hour, so by the end of the month bills had cleaned us out and left very little money for us to enjoy Vegas. Always being tight with money stressed me out almost to my breaking point.

            I grew up in the Foxboro Wisconsin (which is about 15 minutes south of Superior) and I moved into town in the sixth grade. I had never lived in a large city before and only visited Minneapolis a few times in my life. Living in a large city means lots of people and lots of people means lots of traffic. I had to adjust to leaving an extra thirty minutes earlier than I was use to just because there was a ninety percent chance that the freeways were either slow or jammed up completely. Like having little money, running into daily traffic jams started to take a toll on me. I wanted to be home where a traffic jam was five cars at a stoplight, not four full lanes of cars backed up for fifteen miles. I also had to explain to my boss why I was late almost everyday, but she understood what I was going through. Large cities are also filled with lots of bad neighborhoods. Some of the neighborhoods were just plain scary to drive through night or day.

            Having just graduated, I was only eighteen years old and not exactly the most responsible person. I had never written out a check or paid a bill as a matter of fact. Just about everything I had to do in Las Vegas was somewhat new to me. Being the irresponsible young adults we were, most of our bills were paid late. For example, we were usually a month behind on our cable and internet bill. I wanted to be responsible and pay bills on time, but some months we were living paycheck to paycheck.

            Looking back at that long year in Vegas, I probably should have never left home. I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was to head out on my own. I don’t totally regret trying to start a new life in Las Vegas, because it taught me many things about being on your own. Next time I’ll make sure I have more money saved up, but I don’t see myself moving out of this area anytime soon.