In June I had to pack up my belongings and say goodbye to Aberystwyth as I had reached the end of my experience in University. Now it was time to tackle the thing all students dread - the real world. However, there is one light in this terrifying moment of facing reality - the fact that you have a place to call home. Moving back home meant a lot of changes to my lifestyle and I'm sure it means a lot of changes to other graduates' lifestyles as well. Let's take a look at the biggest changes to my way of life.
Housemates:
One of the biggest changes to be noted is the people with whom you are living. I have gone from living with my best friends and adopted family to living with my real family. Now this isn't a bad thing, of course it isn't, but it does mean the way you have to behave around the house changes. You can't just lie on the couch watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine all day because your parents will see you as 'lazy', but before it was totally normal behaviour. As such, a lot of things that you do at home will change, and I shall go on to develop these points throughout this blog post.
For me, living with family also means doing a lot of things with family. My daily schedule has changed to adapt to them and make them a part of my daily life. Whereas before I would tend to do my own thing and if my housemates joined in it was a bonus. Now I wait for my family before I sit down to watch TV in the evenings, or wait for them before watching a film. Living with my family has changed a lot of elements of my day-to-day life. None of these changes are necessarily good or bad, they're just different to the way things were before.
Eating Habits:
In University, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. It was very common that I'd only be cooking for myself (my Uni household wasn't able to commit to regular communal meals) and I'd normally eat alone. This completely changed when I moved back home. My family nearly always eat dinner together with either of my parents cooking for everyone. Now I could cook my own dinner and eat at a different time, but this would seem odd and sometimes rude. I realise that not all families eat together and so this change wouldn't apply to some people, but it does for me.
Eating with my family is beneficial in a massive way. I get to have my parents amazing home-cooked food rather than my terrible attempt at anything more than pasta and sauce. But it does mean I have to stick to their eating schedules. I have to wait for my parents to get home from work before I can eat so it means other activities are moved around (like writing for this blog). If there are some activities that mean I have to eat on my own, like going to my own job, then of course I'd cook and eat by myself, but otherwise I'd rather wait to have amazing food from my amazing parents. This regular eating schedule also means I am eating more than I used to in University. This is a good thing for me as I never used to eat enough, so the change of food habits has overall had a good impact for me.
Chores:
This comes alongside eating with the family because if the family eats together, the dishes of all the family need washing up too. I don't find this an issue because if my parents have cooked then my sister and I should clean. Especially since we're both living here for free. But this is a change from life in University. I'm used to cooking for one, so only cleaning for one. This also goes for the whole household. My household in University held the concept of cleaning up after yourself (as best as we could, anyway). At home everyone cleans up after each other. Like I said before, with my parents being in work and my sister and I living at home for free, this is a fair deal. The concept of everyone cleaning up after themselves wouldn't work at home either. The animals can't clean up the mud trails that their dirty paws leave behind.
Although this is a fair change of lifestyle, it is a change that I have to fit into my daily schedule that differs from life at University.
Friends:
This is the most negative change for me. In University, I was constantly surrounded by people I knew and could spend time with. Aberystwyth was so small that you couldn't walk up the main street without seeing at least three people you knew. Now, it is the complete opposite for me. My family moved towns in the summer of my first year at University. This meant that I didn't have much chance to make friends in the town in which we currently live. This makes it difficult for me to spend time with friends (including my boyfriend) as the town I used to live in is a 45 minute drive away. This doesn't seem like too much, but when your car is in for repair and the trains are too expensive it makes a big difference. Before I had my job, not being able to spend time with friends was crucial to me and was often a source of sadness as I am a social person. Luckily now I have made friends within my job and get to see people I know (who aren't my family) regularly.
Pets:
This is one of my favourite changes. Although living with friends during University was amazing, no animals were allowed. To come home and be able to spend time with animals is so wonderful, especially with the amount of animals we have. I believe spending time with animals also helps mental health (I'm sure I read an article about it somewhere) and allows you to communicate with someone who can't respond negatively (most of the time, anyway).
Although they have not always been negative changes, the changes from University life to home life have seemed very large at points. You just have to learn to live with these changes and accept that this is the way your life is now as the University section of your life has finished. I haven't listed every single change that has been made to my lifestyle but I listed the ones that seemed to make the most difference and were the most important to me.
Are you surprised by any of these changes and their effects, or are they to be expected? If you're a graduate reading this, would you agree? Or are there any big changes that I have missed?
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Scribble to you soon,
Scarlett