There are many benefits, as well as struggles, that come with living at home during university. Here are 15 signs you lived at home during your studies.
1. The Endless Food Supply.
While you may need to still budget when it comes to buying food during the day while on campus, you do have the option to eat without worry of costs when at home at night. All your friends who live away have to go through the struggle of grocery shopping and finding the money to buy all their food. You have the luxury of having a fridge that ~magically~ refills on it’s own thanks to your parents.
2. You Didn’t Experience The Freshmen 15.
Having your parents do the grocery shopping for you, and making you home cooked meals, meant you still had all the healthy food options available. Your diet didn’t consist of only pizza and other campus foods that were very unhealthy. By the end of the fall semester, all your friends were starting to notice that freshen 15 was a real thing, while you had no idea what they were talking about.
3. You Had Your Own Personal Space.
While you may not have had your own bedroom and still have to share your space with family, you still have some personal space. Your friends are sometimes lucky if they get 10 minutes alone in their bedroom or a common area. Not having someone around you every minute of the day was nice sometimes.
4. Ability To Move Around Freely.
Speaking of personal space, living at home also meant you had a lot more space than friends who moved away. You don’t have to try and squeeze your whole life into a 12 by 19 foot room.
5. Saved More Money.
Your student loans are much lower than anyone who lived away from home. You didn’t need to spend thousands on rent, food, furniture, electricity, internet, and tv thanks to your parents covering the costs.
6. Less Stressed Than Others.
University is stressful for anyone. But without having to worry about bills, and not having all the added stress with relocating, you got to avoid all those responsibilities and was hassle free compare to everyone else.
7. You Had Less Distractions (Potentially).
With less stress, and the comforts of home, you had less distractions to take your focus away from your studies. That is if your family didn’t bother you and you kept yourself from all the distractions that also came with the comfort of home (for example, procrastinating and finding things you forgot you had, which keeps you distracted for longer than intended). But living at home during university was nice when you didn’t have parties or loud roommates all around you when trying to finish an essay due the next day.
8. You Had The Emotional Support Close By 24/7.
Being at home meant when you were stressed out, alone, lost, or just upset, you had your family and pets right next to you to help you get through it. Nothing makes you more happy than getting much needed cuddles from your dog or cat whenever you want! That’s the benefit of living at home during university.
9. You Didn’t Feel As Mature.
Living at home with your parents meant you still had all their rules to follow and couldn’t be as independent. Does “not under my roof” sound familiar? You may have even had a curfew. And you defiantly did not have all the freedom your friends who lived away did. You envied them when they could leave their room at 3 a.m. to go to McDonalds and you couldn’t. Your parents treated you like you were still a kid often because you lived at home during university.
10. It Was So Much Harder To Make And Keep Friends.
Not living with your friends in a dorm or sharing an apartment meant you couldn’t do anything at anytime together. If your friends also lived at home for school, chances are the both of you would only see each other on campus. And you had to first try and make friends with people in your class which was a lot of work when all anyone did it seemed was go to school for class and then leave campus right away. You had to put so much more effort in just to socialize if you lived at home during university.
11. Commuting Was The Worst.
Your day consisted of waking up at least 2 hours before your class started so that you might be on time (depending on delays of course). Going to class via car, bus, train, or maybe a combination of transportation, and even multiple transit systems. As soon as class was done you set off for your long journey home and would be lucky to make it home before the sun went down. Your friends in residence didn’t understand the struggle of trying to get to an 8 a.m. class when all they had to do was roll out of bed 10 minutes before class started, or 5 minutes before if they skipped breakfast.
12. Participating in Extracurriculars Was A Struggle.
When having to commute at least an hour to school, the last thing you wanted to do was have to stay on campus till 9 p.m. for a club or sports team. Staying on campus that late meant two things; you weren’t going to be home till earliest 11 p.m., and you were going to be exhausted the next day. You would much rather choose sleep over any club. If you lived at home during university there was simply no way.
13. You Couldn’t Take Advantage Of All That The Campus Had To Offer.
Not only did you lose out on the experience of living away from home, and didn’t enjoy as many extracurriculars, but you also missed out on the campus resources. If your campus offered tutoring for a class, you had to hope it was at a time that fit around both class and commuting times. If you were at home studying and needed a book from the school library, you had to wait until the next day to get it because the library wasn’t a short walk away. And you tried your best to go to the gym but it was hard fitting in a workout between classes.
14. Parties Were A Lost Cause.
Partying almost never existed. You couldn’t just walk across the hall to someone’s room where the party was like your friends in rez could. And you defiantly didn’t have parties happening every other night like they had. There was maybe the odd weekend party at a local frat house that was advertised on a Facebook group, and a party during reading week, and that was it. Visiting your friend’s university and realizing what real college life in rez was like was an eye opening experience that you couldn’t really remember the next day.
15. It Was Almost Impossible To Fit A Job Into Your Schedule.
Unless you were lucky enough to get an on-campus job which was worked around your classes, working off campus was very difficult. Being a commuter and having classes at various times a day meant if you weren’t in class, you were either travelling to/from school, studying, or supposed to be sleeping. There was no time in your day to add getting to work and working especially because you lived at home during university.
Although you may of missed out on the “typical college experience”, and you sometimes regret not moving away from home, you are still happy with your choice of staying at home during university. You envied friends who lived on or close to campus often, but in the end came out with less student debt, and a unique experience that you would do all over again.
