“We all kind of knew this was more of a transition phase, but it’s a whole year transition phase,” David Ebrahim explained.
“And gosh, it really has felt like a transition phase,” Will Smith added.
Framed comic books on the wall, a diagram of a butterfly, a fireplace with some sort of Halloween decoration in it, a few used dishes and unused drive-thru napkins here and there. The table was littered with a variety of items. In the living room sat a couple of comfy couches arranged to look at the TV. Ebrahim and Smith sat across from me on one couch.
“So, how did this happen?” I asked. They laughed.
“I have no idea,” Ebrahim said between chuckles.
Both David Ebrahim and his roommate Will Smith were 2023 Union graduates. Neither really expected to stay in Jackson after graduation, yet here they are, living in an apartment in Cherry Grove with fellow Union graduate Dylan Runions as well as senior exercise science major Josh Kersey.
On Smith’s part, he always thought that he had definite plans away from Jackson, Tennessee after graduation. Then his plans fell through.
“I was like ‘Well I have a good church and I have people here still and I have people who want to room with me,’” Smith said. “That’s what I always say: if you’re going to stay in Jackson and you’re not a student at Union, you probably have really good people here because that’s what keeps people here in Jackson.”
Ebrahim, meanwhile, struggled to find a job after graduation due to his international status requiring extra paperwork. Eventually, he did get a job offer from a company he knew and liked here in Jackson. So, he stayed.
“For me, it was like a triangle basically that I kind of used to assess where I’m at. It’s between work, church and community, and Jackson was a place where all three met,” Ebrahim explained. “There was a great job offer, there was a great community and there was a great church that I was invested in.”
From the beginning though, they all knew that their apartment was no long-term home with both Smith and Runions being engaged, but transition phases can be valuable. Ebrahim knows this well as he explained how college itself was a valuable transition phase for him.
“It would have been three times harder for me to come straight from a different country to the United States and just work without going through college,” Ebrahim said. “Going through college I learned English better. I learned relationships better. I learned to read the social perspective around me or the social setting around me and to read other people’s emotions and ideas — how they think, how they act, how they function.”
There are many differences between life in college and life in the working world. One thing both Smith and Ebrahim noted was the weight of every decision.
“You get out of college and you get into this life, and your decisions are even more pricey and even more costly. We come back from work, and you have got to pick one thing to do per night,” Ebrahim said. “In college there’s a little more flexibility because things are spontaneous and change a lot and plans are interchangeable. You don’t have to pay the full price of a decision that you made one night in college, but that’s not how the world works.”
Smith also noted a big difference he experienced between college roommates and working life roommates: how little they see each other.
“I literally am in the same room as Dylan, and we rarely see each other. Like David was saying earlier, you have a limited time to do stuff. And so, when you’re not at work, you’re doing stuff and so you’re gone a lot more,” Smith said. “I think it creates a little bit more of an isolated feeling sometimes because you’re like, ‘Man, I’m missing everybody.’ Like I’m coming back and we’re all doing different things.”
They went on to talk about how hard it is to find people with no central gathering spaces and how much intentionality and effort is required for any social plans.
“If you want to do something, you put it together,” Smith said. “That takes work to do and that’s hard to do, and so you realize you are lazy about social things because you haven’t had to try for that for so long and that’s an ordeal.”
Smith explained all the effort such an ordeal can be because you want to clean so the place is nice, make food and entertain, since it is your home after all.
“You just realize you have to start hosting like an adult, you’re not just hanging out,” Smith said. “I’m just going to have to be okay with the fact that things work and put in the work.”
Both Smith and Ebrahim originally thought it would be strange to live in an apartment right off campus. But in the end, it feels totally separate.
“It feels separate because of how many hours you spend at work, not how many miles it is from campus,” Ebrahim said.
They were glad for the accessibility they had to campus and the accessibility campus had to them. However, Smith also pointed out another reason why Cherry Grove feels so separate from Union for them: Union has moved on just like they have.
“The thing about college campuses is that a quarter of the campus turns over every year, and so of course, if a quarter of campus changes, the whole culture’s gonna change every year,” Smith said. “Union doesn’t miss me. Like a few people might be like, ‘Oh man, it was fun when Will did this,’ but like, Union doesn’t miss me. Union has moved on because of course it has. That’s what colleges do. And as long as you, the person out of college, have moved on too, you can have a good and okay relationship.”
At this point it was late on a work night, so they both wanted to go to bed.
“Anything else y’all want to say?” I asked.
“Is after college life as exciting? No, it is not as exciting. But I think it is better,” Smith said. “It feels like real life, which is why it’s not as exciting. As Union University professor Matt Henderson would say, ‘Happiness is a lie and contentment is what we’re actually looking for.’”
“It definitely is harder in many ways, but it does feel more like real life,” Ebrahim said. “And that is the life that I will be living for most of my lifetime.”
