=== When Is A Person Not A Person? ===

     Okay, so this strange thing has come up at work recently which has me wondering... when is a person not a person? The nice thing is that I can talk about this because I'm not revealing any personal information about anybody specific; however, this IS something which has come up a few times recently when dealing with both people who are currently living in our community and with people who are applying to live in our community.

     We can only allow 2 people per bedroom living in a suite. The only time this is different is when it is a 1 bedroom in which case there can be 2 adults and 1 child under 10. In every other case, it is two people per bedroom. This seems simple enough, right? Well... when people come in to ask if we have any places available for rent, we have to ask how many people will be living there. Most of the time this is a normal interaction where they tell us there's two or four people or however many. Sometimes people come in and ask if we have a 2 bedroom and we won't have one, so they'll ask about 1 bedrooms... then you ask how many people would be living there and they say "Two."

     I'm going to stop there for a moment and note that this would be a perfectly normal answer. Two people in a 2 bedroom apartment. But then they continue on to say "There would be two people living there, and we have two kids." Well alright then, let me ju--wait, what? HOW many PEOPLE? "Two."

     The sad thing is that I have actually had to argue and explain to people that children are PEOPLE too. They do count as people. Living human beings. PEOPLE. Like... what could possibly make a child not a person? In what way could you possibly argue that your child does not exist, or count as a living occupant under your roof? I just don't understand; this is a real mindset that some people come to us with and it will forever boggle my mind until someone comes up with an answer for me.

Until then, all of you PEOPLE should go out there and have a wonderful day! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Apartment Life

     Is there any escape from the noise of living in an apartment? It seems not. Now, I don't exactly have a ton of experience in apartments seeing as this is only the second one I've lived in... but it seems common so far to have a lot of noise to listen to from the other tenants. The family on the same floor as myself seems to have children that I can hear sometimes when they're having a bath or whatever. I don't mind them, I don't hear them often, and when I do I understand that they're children and they're not like... yelling really loudly in an attempt to annoy everybody around them. They're just being kids.

     The girl upstairs on the other hand. I can't tell if she's living with someone else or not, but I QUITE often hear hear bawling or yelling about something. I can actually currently hear her telling someone to "F" off. This, I find to be a little bit annoying. Most of the time I couldn't care less because I have music or whatever to listen to rather than having to hear her. You would think that myself being the interoverted nerd I am wouldn't mind too much and that I would put on my headphones and tune her out... but even I have my limits. My goodness.

     It's honestly less that I find her annoying and more that... it makes me feel bad for the actions of myself and Carley in the past. I'm usually not very quick to anger, but if someone knows how to, they could probably annoy me pretty easily. I'm definitely working on keeping my anger down, I think I've handled things a lot better recently; I could always use a little bit of help though. I don't know about other people, but I find it quite bothersome to have someone get so quick to anger when I'm only trying to be accepting and understanding. What I admire most in a person is them being understanding and forgiving even when it's so hard for them to do. That's something I strive to do.

     So I guess I have to wonder what could possibly be going on up there that I hear this sort of thing going on every couple days or so. Even though I wonder about it... and wonder why she keeps subjecting herself to whatever is going on up there over and over again... I have to look at myself and remember that I have done the same thing. I hope my future is less argumentative and more understanding than is has been in the past. The future will tell me what happens.

~ Kyle