Helloooo team, alumni, parents! We are starting our first ever blog post series, to continue sharing a more personal side of the team and leadership through a snippet of our regular/every day lives! Our second blog post is from Jacob Cruger, who is one of our seniors!

What even are brokers? What do they do? Do I need one? Also how does renter’s insurance work? And is it weird to take pictures at open houses? These aren’t rhetorical questions, I honestly know nothing about being an independent adult.

A group of friends and I just started a process that I always imagined to be fairly simple: apartment hunting. We’re a week into it an it’s turned out to be anything but. The problem with our search has been one of prioritization – should we sacrifice affordability for shorter commutes? Should we give up a bathroom to get a nicer kitchen? Should we risk pursuing the sketchiest listing we found to have that great porch? My friends and I mostly concerned with the typical things renters worry about: price, proximity to our various offices, and the quality of the building itself. I, however, have an additional consideration to make: how far is the nearest pool?

Swimming has been a part of my life long enough that it’s hard to imagine not getting in the pool on a regular basis. Next year, though, there’s a good chance swimming regularly, let alone competing, won’t be an option. What then, comes next? I’ve always though I might enjoy triathlons; they’d allow me to mix less frequent swim practices with running and biking, an ideal option if I can’t get to a pool as regularly as I’d like. Masters swimming is an option too, but it tends to be really expensive. Whatever I wind up doing, I get the sense I’m going to miss club swim next year – it’s been a better way to stay in shape, compete, and meet amazing people than I ever imagined. Sitting down and thinking about it now, I think I can honestly say it’s among the things I’ll miss most about college.