When I moved into Portland Green last year, my mum looked out of the square window, tiny in the white wall under the harsh fluorescent lights. She saw a bird-poo-splattered courtyard, water-damaged whitewashed brick and the empty shells of a thousand vape liquids.
“It’s like being in prison”, she said.
Cheers, Mum. For the next year, every time I returned from my rainy commute from a mind-numbing seminar, I felt like I was in a cell. The fire alarms were a frequent wake-up drill, and every so often a screw in a purple hoodie would come over to inspect my room, always when a hangover, a deadline and a bout of illness had turned it into a tip. The silverfish were all over and the carpet was growing dirtier, because we were the only flat who weren’t given a hoover.
I’m not someone who can deal with griminess and there always seemed to be a film of grease over everything in the kitchen, an acrid smell coming from the fridge, and the bin was never less than three-quarters full. And I still felt like I was one of the lucky ones! I had an en-suite! It may have been a windowless box with no storage and a sink that didn’t drain, but I wasn’t like my friend at Bristol, who shared his bathroom with twelve other people.
I could leave my stuff in over Christmas, unlike my friends at Oxford who had to pack and un-pack four times. And whenever I pre’d at Manor Bank I’d be grateful we didn’t have the claustrophobic kitchens with the baby-sick-yellow walls and the lift that smelled of bin. There was no flatcest, and my fellow inmates were all clean and normal.
Your flatmates are not your soulmates, and your student accom is not your forever home.
Your flatmates are not your soulmates, and your student accom is not your forever home. It’s important to make your room a safe haven but if you’re in it for too long the walls will start closing in. My top tip would be to prioritize getting your space clean before you start studying. Planning out an essay is a lot easier when there’s no crumbs on the floor or smudges on the desk and you’re just smelling notebook and laundry powder, not a cold coffee or last night’s spag bol.
I also think decorating is underrated for boosting self-confidence. It’s very easy to become insecure at uni - everyone else is the same age as you and you mostly only see them among their friend group, with better clothes and clearer skin and nicer tech. If you’re able to decorate with posters of things you like, or trinkets that remind you of home, then your bedroom becomes a place of self-affirmation. If you’re constantly worrying what others think of you, it’s nice to be reassured that at least they’d think your bedroom is cool. Also, putting pictures of your friends up might help you to feel less lonely. You have got some, and they don’t all hate you.
The best way to survive a student accom, though, is to leave it.
The best way to survive a student accom, though, is to leave it. Make sure you keep it as a place you can return to for rest, and not a tiny box you can stew in. Your bed will always feel nicer when you’re on top of it after a lecture or a social, not when you’re crawling out of it at three o’clock, with five ReCaps to catch up on.