By: Alexis M Peters ‘20

Okay, I’ve done some pretty wild food challenges in the past (check out my adventure of eating raw vegan in the USC dining halls for a week, here!) but this time, it wasn’t voluntary. I’m gonna let you guys in on a secret: Adulting is hard. This is my first year living off campus in non-USC housing, and my roommates and I completely forgot that paying for our own gas is… a thing? For those of you who have had the wonderful fortune of living in university housing, where they take care of that stuff for you, let me explain. Your landlord does not pay for your gas! (Well, sometimes they do, but check your lease agreement to be sure!) And guess what? Stoves and ovens run on gas! So… for an entire week, while my roommates and I waited for the gas company to come and flip a switch to get our stove up and running, I had to make do with the few appliances we had: a rice cooker, an electric kettle, and my one true savior: a toaster oven.

By: Alexis Peters ‘20

When you’re first going off to college, people don’t tell you the whole story. They talk about how much fun it was, how many great friends they made, all of the crazy adventures they had. And when people do mention the not so great parts of college, they might talk about the workload, having to pull all nighters, and their weird freshman roommate. But nobody tells you about how hard it is to grow up and actually start being an adult. Who knew adulting was so hard?? And expensive?? I have had my fair share of ups and downs while trying to figure out this brave new adult world, so here I give you a crash course in ADULTING 101.