This arrangement has both advantages and disadvantages. The main risk is that your friend may at some time make new plans and move out, leaving you with a larger and more expensive apartment than you really need for your personal use. But if you are really good friends, this can work out quite well, since you will enjoy each other's company and contribute to each other's lives in many ways.
I was, in a previous life, an apartment building (income property) appraiser.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.