The Bed

I came home to a long weekend of travel to a room that I honestly didn’t recognize. I looked around for my blow up bed, the cleaned out trash can that I used as a night stand, and my other random knickknacks that were usually scattered around the room. Instead, I found a lavish bedroom with a proper nightstand, a lamp, the chair I had stolen from my sister’s dorm room—and a bed.

Um, what happened?

I put my stuff that I had taken with me that weekend on the floor and then walked out of the room. I actually thought that I had turned into the wrong room in my aunt and uncle’s house. I made my way over to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of those small Kraft mac-and-cheese meals that you just pop into the microwave and an availably clean spoon from the utensil drawer. After snacking on mac and cheese and calling my parents to straighten out who did what at what time, I thanked everyone and made my way over to the newly furnished room in the corner.

I grabbed the stack of folded sheets that were bought to fit the bed sitting off to the side of the room, and I fixed my new bed up to look like those picturesque bedroom sets that you find in Ikea. I was obviously surprised that I had received an actual room. It kind of broke the streak of my transiency, and it allowed me to have the weighty feeling of a home base. I was no longer floating around in the streets of Los Angeles. I had a room where I lived (and then I just some other random places that I rested my head at during the week.).

I sat on my new bed that night somewhat in shock of the events that had happened to me that day. I was about to go to sleep in the biggest bed that I had ever had the pleasure of calling my own. I didn’t have to share it with anyone; it wasn’t just for a weekend vacation or a brief two-day-stay at a friend’s house, but it was set up for me to use at least, however, for the few months that I was going to stay in my aunt and uncle’s house to finish up college and my internships. It was weird—different—but it was a step forward toward the type of future that I wanted to have.