SSU

Joshua Pitts, Nicky Phoenix, Lora Toyonaga and Shay McClellan are 22; Charlie Cooke and Esther Aitkins are 21

June 2030

About 50 years ago, when Ashley Pitts jnr and his twin sister Jami went to SSU, their parents brought a house on campus for them and their cousins and friends to live in. The dorms were very... basic, as the twins' mother had put it, and their wasn't a lot of space or privacy. Many other members of their extended family would go to college at SSU and live in the house, and then many of their children would eventually do the same.

Joshua Pitts, an Art major, is Ashley jnr's son. He lived in the Pitts family house until graduation a few months ago, along with his cousin Nicky Phoenix, who studied business. They've been best friends since their early teens

Joshua's girlfriend Lora Toyonaga majored in education. They also met as teenagers, when she was a boarder at the private school he attended in Redwood City.

Along with them at the house was another cousin, Charlie Cooke, who is studying music.

Looking back, the last few years of college are a bit of a blur.

There have been classes

Dates

Parties

More dates

Study

Classes

Fun times

Dates

Getting to classes

It's all a bit exhausting.

There's always more class work

More dates

More fun

Exam results

New semesters

More music

 

More dates

... wait.

So, yeah, Nicky and Lora. 

If Joshua were honest with himself, he'd admit that his and Lora's relationship had lost its spark some time ago. But even so, there are better ways to end things than this! He was more disappointed than angry, and he wasn't even sure which one of them he was more disappointed with. 

At least Lora and Nicky had the decency to move out of the house for their last year, and into a dorm room. Joshua just threw himself back into his work

Meanwhile, there were more dates

Esther had moved into the house, and Charlie actually found himself wondering if she might be The One...

Of course, there was still more study

More exhaustion

More parties

By the end of the semester, Shay had also moved into the house, and Joshua felt like maybe he'd found The One, too

He tried to not feel too gratified when he learned that Nicky and Lora's relationship hadn't even lasted the year.

---

After graduation, Joshua and Shay moved to Salmon Woods, the largest town in the Three Lakes district, a couple of hours' drive away from Richmond. There's a growing arts community there, and Joshua saw it as his best opportunity to make a career doing what he enjoys the most. Shay had completed a science degree, and got a job at the Geological Sciences Institute near town.

They rented the biggest apartment they could afford. They couldn't stretch to a second bedroom, but there was enough space for Joshua to paint in the living room.

Nicky moved back in with his parents in Richmond, while he got his career underway. He'd hoped college would help him figure out what he wanted to do with his life, but he came back more uncertain than ever.

Lora had moved back to Brooklyn Heights, near her parents, and they were no longer in touch. He hadn't spoken to Joshua, either, since he'd moved out of the house. He kind of wants to call him, but isn't sure of how Joshua would react.

Graduation brought another big change at SSU, as the Pitts family had decided to sell the house. Things were a lot different to how they had been when they'd bought it - there were better dorms and other housing options, at the university. And with the growing popularity of the newer college in the city, not everyone in the family wanted to go there anyway. There simply wasn't enough reason to keep it anymore.

Charlie was officially the last member of the family to live there, before he and Esther moved down the road to the dorm for their final year at SSU.

---

I didn't even realise how many different dates Charlie had, until I was going through my old screenshots to do this! He did settle down in the end, though, just like in the story.

The Joshua/Lora/Nicky thing happened autonomously though Nraas Story Progression. I have it set so that most of my sims can't cheat autonomously (they can roll the want, but I can decide what to do with it). The exceptions are new relationships and relationships I don't feel are very strong - I set cheating as possible with them. It's hard to say what makes me think a relationship isn't very strong - it might be that they don't roll many wants for each other, or do many autonomous romantic interactions, or just a feeling I have. Joshua and Lora were like that.

When I went to the house a the beginning of the semester, I found that they had apparently broken up - they were just low-level friends now, and she was Nicky's romantic interest. I moved them out to the dorm, played out the semester, then left. Next semester, Nicky and Lora were also now no longer romantic interests. By then Joshua had met Shay so there was no going back even if either of them wanted to. 

Nicky achieved his Lifetime Wish (20 friends) before he finished college! There's a lifetime reward where you can choose a new wish, but you can only get this before you achieve the current one. I'm going to change Nicky's anyway (via mods), it seems silly that someone would have no major life goals ever again, just because they have a bunch of friends at age 23. I'm not yet sure what I will change it to, though, hence Nicky's uncertainty. 

I 'sold' the house for a couple of reasons. I never really found a TS3 version of the house that worked as well as the one from TS2. There have actually been three similar houses that I've tried to use, but none really seem to work as a student house with up to 8 (young) adults there, on the plot size that makes sense for the world - too crowded, not enough bedrooms, not enough bathrooms...

As I suggested in-story, I also really don't have a need for it any more. My 'baby boom' generation have almost all gone through college now, and there are a quite a few less enrollments than there are graduations every year. We always gain a few people along the way (friends and partners like Shay and Esther) but the dorms will be more than enough even with them.