I’m age 41 but I’m still living in the apartment I got right after college, when I was a Researcher for the State Assembly making $27,500 a year some 17 years ago. I ride my mountain bike to work most days, spend my weekends in the wilderness.

At the same time, I watch as many of my friends and colleagues from high school have houses, homesteads and farms out in the country. Many have families and children heading off to college. But then again, 23 years ago I graduated from High School.

I looked at houses and settling down for a while. But I don’t want to live within ear shot and eye shot of others. I hate the vinyl siding and the mowed lawns of suburbia. But few of rural homes around Albany are much better – they’re basically suburbia but smell a bit more like cow shit with a longer commute.

People say I should grow up. Or at least that’s what I’m thinking in my mind. They are like don’t you want a home, is it not foolish to pay rent to my slumlord? Do you love living with all that mold growing on the walls and up the refrigerator or the tub that doesn’t drain properly or the smoke detector that acts up?