The lure of freedom and a little extra cash in his pocket were the driving forces behind Luke Dupre’s, secondary education sophomore from Raceland, decision to move out. “I basically wanted more independence,” Dupre says. “I wanted to be on my own. I had a good job and had the money, so I just did it.” Dupre and a friend, who wanted to spread wings of his own, found an affordable apartment in Acadian Villa. Surrounded by fellow renters, the duo settled in for life without supervision.

After leaving home, Dupre received mixed reactions from his parents, who had been his overseers, providers and roommates for the past 19 years.

“My dad was like, ‘I didn’t even know you left,’ but my mom did not want me to go,” Dupre said while standing behind the counter of Things Remembered in Southland Mall.

Dupre spends hours each week in the cramped booth in order to pay his new bills. He says it is worth it, and not even begging will get him to move back home. “My mom tried to bribe me today to move back in,” he says, half-joking.

Seth Stogner, freshman from Lockport and longtime friend of Dupre, has yet to make the jump from living at home to independence, and as far as he is concerned, does not see the need. He is happy just where he is.

“It is cheaper to live at home,” Stogner says. “My parents give me plenty of privileges anyway. It is not like I am missing all that much by not having my own place.” Dupre’s unsupervised enthusiasm is lost on Stogner’s controlled contentment.

Dupre says he appreciates the little things that he did not think about before moving out, like the college pastimes of hanging out and saving the princess from Bowser. “Now my friends can come over and just chill,” Dupre said. “And we just play Nintendo.”

Dupre enjoys having a roommate. Being an only child, it is a new experience for him. “I always have someone to chill with,” Dupre says. “If I can’t get in touch with any of my friends, I can always chill with my roommate because he doesn’t have any.”

But Dupre warns that it is not always fun and games. “(My roommate and I) get in arguments all the time,” Dupre says, then imitates an average day in his new digs. “Why didn’t you clean this? What did you do with my CD? Blah. Blah. Blah.”

Stogner lives with a brother, but says it does not bother him much. He says his brother is not going to make him leave his cushy pad. “I have my own room,” Stogner says.

In order to achieve an even greater level of independence, Dupre is planning on moving into a house in North Thibodaux in the near future. “It is going to be great because we can be louder,” Dupre says. “There is way more parking. We will even have a front yard.”

When remembering the years he spent living with his parents, Dupre says there is one thing he misses more than anything else.

“I miss my mom cleaning everything,” Dupre says. “Because between my roommate and I, we both don’t like to clean. We had dirty dishes in the sink from the first day.”

Stogner, satisfied with his place in life, which is very near to his mother, points out what he feels is the reason he has not taken a chance on moving out. “The best part about living at home is the food,” Stogner says. “(My mother) cooks two to three times a day.