So you come to university expecting this amazing change in your life and you wanna know the great thing? You aren't going to get a life change, you are going to get a NEW life! The fact is spending approximately 6 months in another city and then returning to your dull origins for the other half of the year does have it's challenges but also it's perks. The good thing is, no matter how much of a mess you make of things in your Uni life, there is always that place we call home (supposedly where the heart is) that we can run back to. Of course this has it's own challenges, as depending on how far away you live, you may only be able to escape (if you so desire) one or twice a term due to rising train costs, to which i say a student rail card is an invaluable tool, or certainly has been for me in cutting train costs by as much as 40%.
Still the fact is university students are living pretty much a double life. But is this really as exciting as it seems and what are the complications of this? Well for me the big one is if you do meet anyone who isn't just looking for fun at university and does actually want relationship (rare but it does happen) how are you going to handle being apart 6 months a year, possibly at opposite ends of the country? Also what about the masses of friends you make at university? You gotta admit it's gonna totally suck not seeing each other for such extended periods of time. Of course on the flip side you have the home-bound issues too, like keeping in touch with people you have perhaps been friends with since primary school. Now don't get me wrong, i have seen so many people making the effort to travel across the country to keep their friendships going, which is incredible, but there are just as many people letting their friendships slide through the cracks because they just aren't in contact as much as they used to be. Sure we have Facebook and Skype and all, but it still isn't the same as face to face contact with someone now is it? Also you have the issue that you will be away from your family for six months a year, which anyone pre- university would say: 'Pfft! I can't wait to get out from under my parents roof!" To you people i say... you have no idea how boring it is to wait in a launderette for 2 hours waiting for your washing because you don't have a washing machine in your flat, having to wash the dishes by hand because you don't have a dishwasher, and that you don't appreciate the fact that your parents go out and stock your house with food, the amount of which is not limited by the capacity that one person alone can carry. Also of course, if you are like me and you actually get on with your family very well you do miss the company too, but i think even people with the most distant kinds of relationships from their parents will appreciate the fact that when you live at home, with your parents running around after you, you have it pretty easy. Also for me particularly, living where i do i find it inconceivable when i go home that i cannot simply walk into the city, and that going out clubbing costs me a £50 return taxi ride before i even think about drink or club entry. I love being at university because it's like a little universe where everything i need is within a ten minute walk and if i want a Maccy D's at 3am i can just get up and go and buy one.
I think it's interesting how leading such a double life where you really reside in no one place for more than 12 weeks at a time can leave one feeling even more trapped by the constraints of this limited time than you would living in only one city. Is it really a double life? Or is it a half life? Where you can't commit to anything for more than a year because you don't know where you'll be sleeping in September or even what you'll be feeling in a future that is not so distant to the point where you could probably blink and find yourself there? At university, time moves so fast. You don't realise when you live at home but washing up, food shopping and doing your laundry do take up valuable time, and by the time you're finished with all that you still have to get your work done, go to lectures and make time for partying with friends. Everyone thinks university is a bunch of students slobbing around, but when i list it like that it doesn't sound so laid back does it? On top of all this there is the drama of finding a job whilst living in different places for half the year, but that is a topic for another time!
Enough rambling from me, what do you guys think about all this anyway? Drop me a comment!
Atargatis over and out xxx
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