Trouble in Paradise
Moving away to university is the stuff of dreams. The ability to pack your bags and move from a caring family environment to caring university community is worth all the extra study and effort that you put in during your last two years at school.
While you are at uni, you will learn so much more than what takes place in the classroom. You will discover how fast money can be spent. You will discover not to watch Masterchef when you’ve only got a tin of beans in the cupboard. You might learn a new sport or even take a year abroad but one of the biggest lessons you will learn is how to live with other people.
Typically, your route through university accommodation will see you live in halls during the first year, before finding a smaller group of people to share private rented accommodation with.
Living in halls can be exciting. You will have your own little piece of heaven to make your own. Make a beeline for the poster sale in Freshers’ Week and get your photos from home up. You might even share a room with someone. Halls can range in size from flats of 4, 6 or 8 to whole floors with a shared kitchen. There might be a girl / boy split or mixed and you may well find yourself in with final year or research students or living next door to an overseas student.
It can be a rollercoaster of a ride to settle in. Everyone looks at their new flatmates on the first day and wonders if they will ever like them as much as they like their friends at home. Most of the time, it will be fine. You will find a common ground and get along nicely. You may even make a new best friend who will be there for every stage of your life, from weddings to christenings and beyond. That’s not to say that it is all hearts and flowers. There will be people who you may not get along with. There may well be someone that you cannot live with at all. Don’t worry – this can be fixed.
If you are finding, after the first month to 6 weeks, that living with a certain group has left you a bit out of your depth, there are many things that you can do to make life a little easier. Firstly, the people that you live with are important, but they are not the be all and end all of uni life. Get to know people on your course or join a club and meet some new people that way. It may sound like easy advice to give, but university life will be your first real experience of building a network. You may be friendly with many people, yet be the only person to have exactly that network of friends. You could have your course friends, your rowing club friends, your library friends, friends from home, friends that you meet in your part time job and friends that you just see around campus.
Next, pop along to accommodation services and let them know that you are finding it a bit tricky to settle in your accommodation. They won’t judge you – they’re used to helping students make themselves at home and will want your university experience a great one.
The hardest thing you will do is try to plough on and face your challenge by yourself – the great news is that there is no need to go it alone! There will always be someone around to help.