Living: Reflecting on Shawshank

By Jaime Alvis

So living in a new place and being by myself I have started to yearn for “noises” that are familiar. You know, the sound of the turn signal in a car that your dad is driving late at night home from Christmas at Granny and Grandaddy’s with you and your sister sleeping in the back seat. The rumble of gravel under tires as you drive around the lake at your summer camp. The sound of the annoying cat meowing constantly. The song of the bell tower ringing in every hour at your University. These are the things I am thinking of.

Being in the working world is strange as well. No longer does time pass by as it does when you’re in college. The first thing you realize is that you need money. Money determines everything. Where you live. What you eat. And now those things are completely under your responsibility. You can no longer go to the “Dhall” when you’re hungry. Nutrition is now your responsibility. You can’t go around the lines and choose your salad fixings and “Good For You” dishes that are chosen for you. It is time to start cooking! Cooking just doesn’t come that easily to me, especially cooking for one.

The second thing you realize is that you’re alone, unless you’re getting married, moving in with a boyfriend or living with a best friend. Someday I will appreciate the time alone but it is crippling right now.

The third thing you realize is that you no longer have the luxury of a month off for Christmas or three months off for summer. Your time has to be planned. I can’t hop in my car on a Sunday afternoon to visit a friend in DC. I have to plan to hop in my car a month in advance to take off a week to have my one vacation during the summer or during Christmas. But so does the rest of the world, right?

I just have to get used to it. I feel like the recent convicts let out or prison in the movie Shawshank Redemption, used to a life-confined but comfortable, something that they will forever long for.