I did the "adult" American thing and bought myself some shelter last year. I figured I was on my own for providing shelter for myself and there's some financial rationale (which I learned and forgot pretty quickly) for buying rather than renting.

For a year and a half, I have been part owner of my shelter. I figure that I own about the bathroom now. No one gave it to me. I figured out how to get it.

Seems as though a lot of things go that way.

And now my shelter is a haven. Granted, it is often a mess, frequently a money pit, and sometimes a source of stress. But it is a place to which I can retire from the world, sit on the couch with a cat or two, and let the world go on without me. Not that the world wouldn't go on without me anyway, but this way, *I* have a respite, too.

There is something to be said for deciding what it is you want and need and then figuring out how to make it happen.