What It's Really Like to Live in a ‘Dorm for Adults’

I’m a 31-year-old female, and I live in what’s billed as a “hacker house”—a large home on the edge of Lake Union in Seattle, designed to accommodate up to 18 residents at once. Though the name implies a house full of young tech workers, those “disruptor” types really only flood in during the summer, when the local tech giants run internship programs. Right now, everyone on this floor is a graduate student, and all except myself are from elsewhere—some as far away as Argentina and Estonia.

Many of my roommates stick around for a year or more, and are exploring new ways to innovate—whether that's artistic, in the sciences, or like myself, in journalism.