I recently graduated from the University of Liverpool with a degree in French Studies and during my 4 (!!!) years studying for this prestigious piece of paper, I had the opportunity to live with a range of different people from different backgrounds and countries. The opportunity was definitely one I wouldn’t go back and change but I’ve learnt a lot about life from living with other students. I thought I’d put together a few hints, tips and bits of general commentary on the joys of living with other students while you study.
Students are messy.
I
absolutely cannot stand living in disgustingly messy environments. I’m not a
total neat-freak – I’ll let my dishes go a few hours before I wash them if I’m
busy and sometimes I’ll forget to hoover round the flat for a while, but there
is a fine line between messy and unliveable. Students are, inevitably, messy.
You’re likely going to live with someone who’ll drop a piece of raw chicken on
the floor and leave it there until someone else picks it up. You’ll probably
live with someone else who lets their dishes go for weeks before they finally
get around to washing them. It’s all part of the experience.
You’re not going to get along with everyone.
Living
with a group of people you don’t know all that well, in close proximity from
the word go is a difficult situation to find yourself in. Everyone loves to be
liked, but as is the case in any situation, there’s always going to be someone
who you don’t get on with. I was quite lucky over the last few years, with the
exception of the expected bitching that comes from living in a house full of
girls, I got on with all but one of the people I lived with (and I lived with 16 people over the course of 4 years.)
Spatial Awareness.
One
of the great things about living with other students is that you always have
someone to hang out with when you’ve had a crappy day at uni. However, on the
other hand, when all you want is to be by yourself and everyone in your house
wants to get merry and blast music out, it’s hard to appreciate the positive
aspects of having someone there for you 24/7.
Keep a generous supply of wine in your cupboards.
You
will need it. Often. Melt-downs are inevitable, particularly in final year.
Only wine can make everything okay again.
Appreciate them.
You’ll
complain non-stop about them, you’ll curse them to the high heavens, but when
you’re moving out of the mangy flat you’ve been vacating for the last few years
and say goodbye to all your best friends as they pack themselves away back into
their cars and make their long drives home, you’ll be absolutely devastated
that you can’t live the student life with them forever.
