PRINTHome is where the luxury is
November 29, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Squalid hellhole.
I can’t remember if those were my dad’s exact words, but they capture his reaction to my first off-campus apartment. The combination of four guys who lacked common sense and cleaning supplies produced a mess so foul that my dad opted for a hotel room over a free night’s stay when he visited. One look into the bathtub was all he needed.
Living in squalor still might be part of the college experience, but other options are starting to appear in Columbia (“Castles for the college-aged”). Luxury apartment complexes now provide everything young adults need to survive school: valet dry cleaning, tanning beds, fitness centers and, for when the going gets tough, masseuses. For those willing to shell out the cash, college living can prepare students for a taste of the world that awaits after graduation, at least for the business majors.
Wherever students rest their heads, be it condo or condemned shack, a sense of community plays a role in their living situation and their lives. Our feature, “Mere Christianity,” explores the path to a spiritual community some students take. Contributing writer Emily Sussman, who grew up in “that mythically secular part of the country known as the East Coast,” seeks out Christian evangelicals on campus to find out why they, in her words, “choose to forgo what is so often a hedonistic party lifestyle in favor of devout Christianity.”
I suppose my dad got a sense of that hedonistic lifestyle when he saw the preferred furniture in my off-campus abode: empty beer cases.
