Living at home whilst as uni!

After *surviving* my first term at Uni I thought I'd write abit about my thoughts on living at home whilst going to Uni and how I've found it so far.

After finding my dream university course at Nottingham Trent Uni, I had my heart set on going to uni but really did not want to move to Nottingham. Admittedly I am such a home bird, I love being at home with my family and I really didn't want to move away from my boyfriend of nearly 4 years. After a lot of umm-ing and ahh-ing, I made the decision to live at home and travel over two hour's to uni and back three days a week. This way I got the best of both worlds, I am able to learn and get my dream degree whilst being able to live at home surrounded by the people that make me the happiest.

One of the things I absolutely hate about living at home is telling others I do, I know I shouldn't be embarrassed because I am happy with my decision but everyone's reaction is exactly the same - the shock horror on their faces and the first question (especially during freshers) was ... but how do you go out, how do you get up so early??!! Admittedly though, the 5:30am starts do make me question why on hell i'm doing this somedays but I know its only temporary, and will be worth it when i'm where I want to be in 3 years time.

Another thing thats annoying (but is liveable) about travelling in is the 3 hour wait between lectures and seminars, which if I've got no work to do can be the longest couple of hours of my life! Something else that I find slightly annoying (but is probably me being lazy) is when theres group work to be done, and the rest of the group would rather do the work on our day off rather than making the most of the three hour gaps we have in our timetable! When I'd rather work through our breaks to save me travelling. But I suppose sometimes that's the compromise I have to do when I'm living at home!

One of the biggest reasons I wanted to stay at home was money, I didn't want to be spending more than student loan on uni accommodation and relying on my mum and dad to pay my rent when chances was I'd be wanting to come home every weekend! By living at home I am able to save so much money and not have to worry about if i can afford to buy food this week or pay this months rent.

One thing I absolutely love is travelling, me and my boyfriend have a long list of places we want to go to, and by living at home it's possible for me to explore the world alongside my studies! Being at home allows me to also save money to put towards a house deposit, which also makes me so happy!

I understand that although it's not everyones choice, I am happy that I've chosen to live at home, despite the challenges it involves, balancing work with travelling and at times feeling like the 'odd one out', I am so grateful that I've made some great friends with some girls on my course who also live at home and travel in, so we're in it together!