It Was Simply Sonder

Prologue

You know, at some point you just accept it. That this is your life, there's nothing else to look forward to. You go to work, you come home, you sleep, you go to work again. Most days you feel like you live at work rather than at home. I think we can all relate to that at some point. We just grow up and we're thrust into this world where nothing is ever the same again.

Eventually you get used to the things around the house too. Little issues that you just don't have time to deal with anymore. I know I have. I grew up in a cabin on a little farm, raising goats and helping my daddy breed dogs. Beagles, that is. They were good dogs, too. I digress. My point is you get used to a certain style of living. I grew up in a world where I didn't want for anything. My parents were good to me, raised me right. Even when they separated I didn't see a problem with the world. I never bothered about food on the table, I didn't fathom exactly what it meant to hold a job and pay your own bills.

Funny, then, that I sit here now in my own two bedroom home and I wonder how I got here. Twenty-eight years old and only just now living on my own for the first time. You know, when I first moved in, I thought it was the worst place I had ever seen. The walls have some spots where you can see through to the light outside. There are rats, roaches, and mice all left behind from the tenant before me. Spiders live in every corner of the house and honestly I don't even look at them anymore. What happened to the girl that would go running from all of these things?

Well, life happened. Things get put into perspective. It is easy to sit in a world where you don't have these inconveniences and imagine that the people who are infested are disgusting. We're gross, we live in poverty, we don't take care of ourselves or our homes. There's more to it than that though. There is always more to see once you start getting to know someone.

I guess when I first moved in I was horrified to see the little brown roaches scurrying across the counter. They were as afraid of me as I was of them and I was bound and determined to eradicate them. In I came with combat gel and borax powder and sticky traps. Armed and ready to take on the world. Then, little by little, I stopped caring. Oh, look, it's another bug on the wall. The cat caught another mouse. The dog is barking at noisy neighbors again. The rat thundered across the ceiling for the tenth time this week and it's only Tuesday.

This is a story about how one person can grow to stop noticing these little things so much. About how sometimes, you just have to deal with it and find happiness underneath all the grime.