Alright, here's my situation. I'm almost 22 years old, a three-time university dropout, and a former homeless pothead. I left my best friend and fellow Aspie in Austin when I moved, but she couldn't live without me and came back to the city I'm in now, where her family also happens to live. I moved back in with my parents about three months ago and started going back to university for summer classes in Computer Engineering. I hate it. I'm switching to the community college in the fall and taking sound engineering classes (just a few hours, the ones I'm interested in), and getting a job if I move back out of my parent's house. My family and I don't get along well on several levels, and I feel like being close in town but not actually in the house would be more healthy for our relationship. I appreciate their help but I've been on my own for so long that living under their roof is very difficult. They also do not respect my official diagnosis and continue to "push my buttons" even when I tell them they're distressing me. This has led to four major meltdowns within two months, which is a LOT for that time span. I usually only have one or two a year. Anyways the main things on my mind are this:
1. I've never successfully lived on my own and paid for school before. But then again I've never had a job before moving out and ended up homeless the last two times I tried it. I also have money saved up, and my classes at this community college are incredibly affordable (a week's paycheck for a semester). That's assuming I'd be paying for myself, which I want to because I'm tired of wasting my parent's money.
2. Due to some... legal problems... I cannot be on the lease. Therefore, my best friend who just moved back and is getting her own place with the help of her parents, wants me to move in with her. I've lived with her before (in a tent, much smaller than an apartment) and we are so similar that we get along fantastically. However, I'm a little concerned about two Aspies living together in one apartment. We both are prone to major, scary meltdowns, although we usually pull one another out of them and they're never directed towards each other. We're practically the same person, in the eight years we've been friends, we've never had a major spat or disagreed on anything that was detrimental to our relationship, so I don't think laundry and dishes would ever be an issue (both OCD as well and love to clean). I'd be paying her some rent money, but it wouldn't be a huge issue if I was late on it.
3. All three of our friends that would come over and crash/hang out are also on the spectrum. We have a pretty strange circle, indeed.
4. After a year we will be moving into a van and travelling the country, because that's how we are and we've dreamed of it since we were little 13 year old punks. We're not really the putting-down-roots types.
Honestly I think I've just convinced myself that it's a good idea. However, I wanted to know if anyone else has experience rooming/living with others on the spectrum? Anything go wrong? Or did it go swimmingly? I'm just very curious, an apartment full of musical, artistic Aspies sounds like an interesting experiment in communal living.
29 Jul 2012, 1:42 am
