Chapter 64

While my mom’s living conditions seemed to only improve after my grandma’s funeral, my own living conditions in Waterloo would enjoy something of a similar improvement. At least in terms of space. This is because not having to live with a group and being a bit of a loner when looking for residence in Waterloo means you can scoop up some of the lease takeovers. 

On Columbia Street in Waterloo, a few blocks directly down from the UW Optom campus, there was always a group of buildings looking for solo residents to fill in their dorms. I’m not sure why they were always on the lookout for new residents but there were theories that were rumored. 

The area wasn’t bad nor was it far from campus for Laurier or Waterloo University and the maintenance was decent too. The only thing was, although it was close to both Universities in the area, it was still one bus ride away from them. There were now residences around a 5 to 10 minute walk from campus and they were of similar prices and in the eyes of students who were cramming hard for exams and had their entire schedules pinned down to minutes, this mattered. The other reason why the Columbia Street residences were passed over? They were situated next to the “Lux” condos. That was a reference to a collection of buildings which were known for luxurious amenities and pretty building aesthetics. They were pricey and mostly showy with little substance but it did make all the condos nearby seem ugly by comparison. 

This was all speculation of course. Not anything concrete. If you wanted to find concrete evidence, you had to look no further than the legal stuff. The reason why Columbia Street was always looking for solo residences is because they were always looking for subletters since they offered longer leases than anywhere else. 

Most of the Waterloo rental properties had leases that were one year in length. Since students were out of town and had terms that were usually 4 months in duration with a summer term off every year, this meant that most students were only in school 8 months out of 12 in a year. This never bothered me in the past in undergrad because I had planned very early on to spend every summer in Waterloo. I was not in the majority though. Most students usually took the summer off and went home. This meant that there would be an entire summer where your rental area would be empty. It was a waste of space. 

Since the leases were not negotiable for 8 months instead of 12, usually the work around was that they allowed you to sublet. This was pretty self explanatory. You would pay for the full 12 months, but you can also let someone else take over for 4 months when you weren’t using it. That someone, your subletter, would then pay you for the months they would live there. 

For most students, this meant that for 8 months of Fall and Winter term, you would pay full rent and live in your unit. Then for 4 months, you would find someone to live in your suite for a fraction of the price you are still paying. Why? Summer term had low student count and it was a subletter’s market. There were tons of students on 12 month leases looking for sublets and only a handful of students who were in school during the summer to fill that large supply. Demand was low. Most of the time when my friends had to sublet, they would lose out on around $100 to $200 a month in the difference between their rent, for which they were still responsible, and the sublet’s rent, which was often low to be competitive and be considered. 

The Columbia houses were different. They had leases for 2-3 years at a time and sometimes required a group to sign on to fill in all the rooms. This is not a good idea for anyone to sign on. For university students, this was not a good deal because what if you don’t like your lodging? What if you dropped out? What if there was something in your living quarters that you really can’t stand? What if you don’t like your roommates? Situations can sometimes be fluid and this was a big commitment. 

Due to the big commitment involved with a lease on Columbia and the longer terms they served, it seems there was never a shortage of lease takeovers and subletting on the street. Subletting or lease overtaking were some ways to get out of living in the Columbia place without completely losing value. In essence, being a solo resident means you can scour the market for sublets and get them for relatively cheap. As long as you don’t mind random roommates.

That’s how I came to find my new residence. I easily found one of Columbia’s places at a fraction of the original price. In my first year of Optometry, I had snagged a lease take over. It was pretty self explanatory. The original leaseholders did not wish to finish their own leases and therefore, were selling their remaining lease time for a fraction of the original price. It was like subletting but you held the entire lease instead and held it for longer than just a term. For a suite with 5 units in it, each having an ensuite, I was paying around $550 a month. The original price on the lease? Around $750+ a month. It was nice, but the only thing is, you did still have to live with strangers. 

Mine were okay though. That’s because they weren’t really strangers. After I found the lease take over, I had passed it along to some of my now very few friends who were still in school. They took a look and decided to take it up as well. Though we technically had separate leases, we lived in the same unit. It was okay but in truth, I had very little interaction with them in general. I had not known how little interaction you have with your roommates when you had your own washroom. It was very little. University students usually didn’t cook very often. It consumes time and junk food being as ubiquitous as it is, is hard to avoid. Since I really only now shared a kitchen with my roommates, and barely needed to cook, I pretty much kept to myself. 

This would be the main theme in Optometry school. It felt isolating. All the previous hobbies I had had gone. It also took a lot of my friends with them. Furthermore, now I was coming home to myself again as well. I think what I missed the most was living with someone in the same program as me. LP and I were pretty much in all the same courses and that meant we kind of had someone to talk about regarding all things academic. Now that I was living on my own, I didn’t have that anymore. While I initially thought I was fine with this, it quickly dawned on me that this was not okay with me.

The isolation didn’t stop there though. I had made new friends at UW Optom. They were cool people but to be honest, I didn’t really get along with them. We were all connected through association from a common future career goal and for me, career goals being the only thing that held us together didn’t function very well. This is because being a pure student was never my forte. I was the guy with the weird hobbies. If you take all those away from me, I don’t think I worked.

My friends in UW Optom and I had tons of events to attend where we all bonded. However, despite all the big events, trade shows and the odd coffee house performance, there was still a  disconnect. I think the main issue was that every time I hung out with the Optometry students, I felt like I was in class. This solidified their association with being a pure student and being without any hobbies. It was all study and no play. The lifestyle was not sustainable but what could I do? My future career goals were in the balance. 

Furthermore, unlike previous school changes where every new chapter meant that the school got bigger and the students got more freedom to go about, UW Optom was a total 180. The school got smaller and the people got more scarce. Everyone in my class, all 89 other people, had the same schedule and went to the same classes. All day every day. It was like I was back in elementary. I had to conform and also be a pure student. Even when we were outside of the classroom, I still had to study for exams and tests. The curriculum was quite demanding. 

So just to summarize, I had gone from a double music major to an Optometry student. That was now my only title. Just an Optometry student. It felt a bit suffocating. I spend time with students for optometry in school, I hang out with students in optometry outside of school and then in my spare time, I cram for optometry tests. There was little room for much else. 

This was to be expected but what I didn’t expect was how much I needed to stand out. I had a problem. Narcissistic or not, it was around this time that I realized that my hobbies were not only something that I found fun and relaxing, it was a requirement to function. It let me stand out, and I really needed to stand out. If I don’t I couldn’t function nor form any genuine connections with others. This character flaw had always been shadowed in the past because I, for the most part, always had classical music to some degree that allowed me to be outstanding. Now that I was a true STEM post-undergrad student, I don’t have it anymore. 

In my mind, I didn’t live on Columbia street, I was living on an island. It was full of Optometry students who were cello-playing music majors that loved breakdancing and sang Acapella. I was the island’s only inhabitant. There were islands near me full of optometry students of other hobbies but too were super scarce in number. Trying to get in contact with them was near impossible. Oh and one more thing, my island had very limited vegetation nor means of survival. It wasn’t sustainable.