If someone were to ask me if they could see the place where I do my homework, I would show it to them, they would tell me how "crappy" it is, and I would agree. You see, I just moved into an apartment, in The Bronx, that I share with a roommate. Both of us are college students, both of us are broke, and neither of us have barely any furniture. My portion of the rent confines me to my room which consists of a big blue air mattress; a black three tier, fold-up bookshelf unit; a dark colored, half-circle T.V. stand; and a silver, medium sized T.V. I tried to make my room look like a home, so on my wall I hung a 24'' X 36" black and white photograph of an abstract view of the Eiffel tower to break up the monotony of the white walls. The bare white walls make me feel like I am institutionalized. The Eiffel tower symbolizes the philosophy that in order to get anywhere in life, you need to climb. In addition -- for the sake of my privacy from those peering, creepy neighbors in the building across the way -- I hung white striped curtains on each of my two windows.
My big blue air mattress dubs as both a seating area (the only seating area) and a desk. I sit on my air mattress -- hunched over and sunken in as it slowly deflates -- typing away or reading books by the light of the ceiling lamp, which is bright enough for my precious eyes to read. The pain in my upper-right back riles me all too often from my poor sitting conditions. Back pain is very distracting, but I can get distracted from even the scant amount of objects I have in my room.
The silver television teases me by beckoning me to turn it on while I study, but I muster up my self control and turn my cheek to its bad influence. My laptop, already turned on, calls me to go on Facebook, to go on AIM, and maybe even checkout a dating website, but I turn it down.
When I am confined to my Bronx apartment during the day, it often feels as if I am living in a Latin American Country due to the sounds of people shouting in Spanish outside my window and the sound-waves of Latin American music seeping through my floors from the apartment below. The sounds of music don’t stop there. Sometimes, I hear opera music playing next door or my roommate blasting "emo" music in his room. At least the music drowns out the barks of small dogs and the cries of screaming babies that seem to come from everywhere. Worst of all is that at times I will smell all of the food that the people downstairs are cooking and the smells are not good most of the time. The rare times that the food does smell good does not benefit me because it makes me hungry; I can't just walk over to my refrigerator and quickly cook up something to eat because I don't have a refrigerator or a properly working stove yet. Our landlord is what I call a “slum-lord." As I sit on my deflating air mattress surrounded by the institutional white walls and the sounds and smells of low-grade apartment living, I ponder on the better places where I could go to study.
There are much better places to study and one may think I am crazy to subject myself to the inconvenience of my current work environment. However, the alternatives do cause me some problems. The fear of venturing out in the enormous city and scouting out a place that meets my needs in terms of the ideal work environment -- a place where I can call myself a "regular"-- seems a little too time consuming. I cannot just walk into any old cafe and feel at home; it will take time and patience, so in the meantime I am stuck in my humble abode with my deflating air mattress and the white walls in "Little Latin America."
Why not just go to the library, you ask? Well, the sound of silence actually scares me. It is tough being anywhere quiet: a church, a library, a testing room. What if I were to sneeze, or what if my phone would accidentally go off; the whole room would stop and stare at me. This makes for a very uncomfortable environment. I could always sit in my room and listen to my Ipod as a way to block out the noises that come from everywhere, but then what if I start concentrating on the words of the music and get lost in the lyrics; that would take too much time away from my studies. This also does not solve the problem of my lack of desk and chair. So I am going to go with my first option and take the time to find a proper work environment that will meet my needs.
My first step will be to get out of the Bronx. The Bronx does not provide me with that inspirational place I need to be in. Therefore, I will probably venture into Manhattan and find a cozy, quiet cafe that serves my favorite kind of green tea and “Sugar-In-The-Raw," along with vegan baked goods. My café will most likely be found in Greenwich Village since it is quiet there, but not "library quiet." Greenwich Village seems like the perfect place to be inspired and being in an inspirational environment will motivate me to concentrate on my work. The lighting will have to be very bright so that I do not strain my eyes reading, but not so bright that all of my facial impurities will be visible. Sooner or later my café will start considering me a regular and all of my tea will be comp-ed. I’m not made of money; so of course my café will have free wireless internet. Please note that if I was made of money, I would have bought a desk, chair, and normal bed by now. In addition, for the sake of convenience, it will have to be close to either the number 1 train or the number 4 train. After the location is straightened out; I will need to decide what will accompany me at the cafe.
Of course I will need my laptop for writing papers and browsing the internet for reference materials; such as a dictionary, a thesaurus and an encyclopedia. I will most likely bring all of my textbooks; I don't have that many, so it will not be a problem lugging them along with me on my commute. A gel pen will be needed because that type of pen allows for the smoothest writing. In addition, I will have to bring my binders and notebooks to reference my notes and take additional notes from my reading. I will also bring with me a bright yellow highlighter to highlight important facts within my reading. After all of these materials are packed up in my bag, I should be ready to go.
It is unfortunate that I have to have obnoxious neighbors, a "slum-lord", and not a lot of funds. My utopia would be if my neighbors would just shut up, my "slum-lord" would fix the problems within my apartment, and I could get my hands on a desk and chair. However, I am not one to complain, so I will take my situation with a granule of Sugar-In-The-Raw and smile.
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