Movin' Out

Wow, some of the aspects of sorting out adulthood are... annoying. And sort of difficult to deal with.

I've been house sitting for the last three months, and have only finally found somewhere slightly more permanent to live.

It was great for a while, but recently, the family came back, and allowed me to stay on while I found a new place. (It's really tough to find a place when you are short of cash...). And I'm really grateful in a lot of ways - I WAS really short of money, it's hard to find a place to live, and them letting me stay there has saved me from having to live with friends and out of a suitcase for the last two weeks.

However... Living in someone else's house, especially when they are there, is really rough. And it has re-inforced something I really need to learn as part of Operation Adulthood: that if money is not changing hands, people are unlikely to genuinely value what you do. For the last couple of months, I've been a super responsible housesitter, going above and beyond - dropping off mail at weird places and at a moment's notice, looking after the garden and the plants, not having anyone in the house without clearing it with the owners, making sure I use a minimum of electricity, etc etc etc. But because I didn't negotiate a salary, it's treated as if the family are doing me a favour, rather than an exchange of services.

I'm not doing this again, because it means that you get into situations like the one I was in last night, when I was back at the house to pick up some stuff, and, all of a sudden, I was expected to move my things from the house a day before the date we agreed on last week, which in turn was two weeks ahead of the date they'd told me I was welcome to say. I ended up cleaning up my room, packing up all my stuff and then telling them that I couldn't move until the intended date, because I had already scheduled help for that day.

If they had either a) respected the work I have done for them this summer or b) had me as an actual tenant, none of this would have happened.

So: annoying conflict, insights about people, and reminder of the need for me to demand payment and respect for the things I do.

weeks, I've gone out of my way to behave like a responsible and polite house guest, and I