Moving to college is an experience: the excitement of starting a new journey, being on your own and getting away from all those people you hated in high school are all part of the college experience. These feelings were no different when I was moving into a new apartment to start my sophomore year of college.

 I am not from San Antonio, so when move in day approached, my mom and I loaded all my stuff into the car, and made the two-and-a-half-hour drive to UTSA. I’ve lived in an apartment before, so I knew what to expect moving into my new place. I had previously visited the complex and toured a demo room. I knew that I was moving in with three other people, all of us were new to the apartment, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. 

Once we got to my new place and received the keys, we made our way to my unit. The first thing that hit me when I opened the door was the smell. It smelled rotten, as if someone had left out raw meat and allowed it to fester. Once my mom and I were inside the apartment, we noticed how truly disgusting it was. The sink was filled to the brim with dirty dishes that had seemingly gone unwashed for weeks. The fridge was filled with food that had been expired for weeks, there was even a piece of what appeared to be cheese in the corner of the fridge that had completely molded over. The cabinets were filled with spices, plates, cups, silverware, pots, pans, you name it. The wooden floor was so dirty that it seemed like it was covered in soot. In the supply closet, there was a table meant for beer pong along with a ping-pong table; furthermore, there was an assortment of shoes and boxes of clothes. The whole place was just a huge mess. My mom and I spent over four hours cleaning the kitchen and common area, and all management said was “Sorry, not our problem.” The funniest part was that while cleaning, we found a note written by one of the previous tenants. The note said “don’t worry bro, I’m going to clean the apartment before I leave.” 

It was an experience, but I learned one important lesson. No matter how dirty I think the apartment gets, it will never reach the levels of a leftover trap-apartment. In the end, it’s not the worst thing in the world.