In the last year of high school, I was called into the guid­ance office for some direc­tion in choos­ing a post-sec­ondary insti­tu­tion. The coun­cilor, a very, very Caucasian man, went through the fea­tures of each uni­ver­si­ty, not­ing espe­cial­ly the ones with nice cam­pus­es. In an effort to save his time, I explained that the esthet­ics of a uni­ver­si­ty were of no con­se­quence to me, because they would­n’t affect my life. Apparently this was a dif­fer­ent approach from oth­er stu­dents, whom he believed decid­ed on the direc­tion of their edu­ca­tion through a desire for lush lawns and big dorm rooms.

I’d always believed that I’d feel the same way about a house as a cam­pus. Give me enough room for my com­put­er with walls thick enough to crank my music and I’ll be hap­py, I used to say. While this may still hold true, I’ve dis­cov­ered that I’m even hap­pi­er with a nice place. I final­ly under­stood that coun­cilor, four years lat­er, after chang­ing uni­ver­si­ties for a brief post-grad­u­ate stint. The new cam­pus was big, mod­ern, and inspir­ing; quite a dif­fer­ence from my pre­vi­ous uni­ver­si­ty with its brown build­ings and con­stant con­struc­tion.

It’s the same when com­par­ing a rent­ed place of res­i­dence and an actu­al house. A house begets secu­ri­ty, and in turn, a sense of con­fi­dence. There’s a dis­tinct feel­ing, every day, wak­ing up in one’s own home. Knowing that every pay­cheque is going towards some equi­ty, a lit­tle piece of prop­er­ty I call my own. Having a com­fort zone, a place that I don’t have to deal with any­one I don’t want to. A place where I make the rules, not hav­ing to answer to land­lords or secu­ri­ty.

It was the process too, that helped me grow. Aside from the com­mon sense of own­ing a house as a long-term invest­ment, I was inspired (or should I say “dri­ven”) to move because of a room­mate. After one par­tic­u­lar­ly child­ish con­flict, I decid­ed more than four months before I actu­al­ly had time to look, to buy a house and take Trolley with me. We moved in before the lease was up on the apart­ment.

I went through the entire process myself, know­ing noth­ing at the start. I had nev­er done any­thing on this scale before, and while it may seem triv­ial to those who have been ini­tia­tors their entire lives, this was a big step for me. It let me know that I could actu­al­ly accom­plish the things I want.

And that cast aside all the doubt that was hold­ing me back.

The Trinary Maturity Series

1. Introduction
2. The Job
3. The Girlfriend
4. The House
5. (In)Conclusion