Entry 7: Best experience of my life

Enormous icicles where I used to do my laundry.

The best experience of my life was the time I spent living on my own in Rochester, New York. I was there for about a year while working as a programmer for a small game studio. This was the first time I lived away from home without roommates and was financially responsible for all of my expenses. It wasn’t the most fun time in my life, but I consider it very important because of the personal growth I experienced. It was an experience that I needed rather than one I completely enjoyed.

Both of my sisters went to school nearby, so I wasn’t completely isolated from people I knew, but I still had a lot of time to myself. I used this time to study a foreign language and engage in inner reflection. I think being able to dedicate so much time to reflection is what encouraged me to follow my dreams and pursue a different career path. If I didn’t have this time to myself, I think I might not have decided to take the leap toward becoming a teacher. Living on my own also taught me a lot of responsibility since it was now solely my job to clean and maintain my apartment as well as be on top of my finances.

    One of the most memorable but irritating things about my time there was the temperature of my apartment. I lived next to the building’s boiler, which meant it was always 80-90 degrees in my apartment, from the start of December to the end of April. Looking back there might have been something I could have used to switch to an unoccupied apartment but I at the time I beared with it. During the winter, I got to experience the “best of both worlds,” since I would bike to and from work in most snow and sub-zero temperature. However, since I prefer cold weather to hot weather, I think I actually enjoyed being outside more than inside my apartment during that winter. I think those experiences enhanced my ability to ignore discomfort or imperfections if it was for a more important goal. Despite these struggles, which are probably quite small in the grand scheme of things, I still consider the experience of living on my own in Rochester to be incredibly valuable.

Vocabulary
financially (adverb): relating to money
expenses (noun, plural): money that needs to be paid (such as groceries or rent)
isolated (verb, past-tense): alone
inner reflection (noun): time where you think deeply
maintain (verb): to keep the same or in good condition
irritating (adjective): annoying
beared (verb, past-tense): stuck with, endured
enhanced (verb, past-tense): improved

Vocabulary Exercise
1. Regular exercise is a good way to _________ your body.
2. I pay all of my _________ before the end of the month.
3. The hermit lived _________ in the woods.
4. When the stock market crashed, many people were ruined _________.
5. Buddhist monks engage in a lot of _________.
6. I hate mosquitoes. They are so _________!
7. In order to _________ a pool, you need to check the balance of chemicals inside it.
8. It was a long journey but she _________ with it and eventually got home.

Grammar Point & Activity
"Not" contractions are shortened versions of parts of speech where a verb is followed by "not," such as "have not" and "haven't," and "does not" and "don't." Find all "not" contractions in the passage above, then write the non-contracted version. After that, rewrite the following sentences with the contraction.
1) Timmy would not eat his broccoli.
2) Jane could not jump as high as Tabitha could.