Moving away from home for the first time is one of the most exhilarating and educational experiences you will ever face. For all you first timers out there experiencing this now, congrats! You are about to go through one of the most important phases your life. You will (hopefully) gather a lot of knowledge and learn indispensable life lessons from this journey. Moving away from home was one of the scariest but most enjoyable things I ever went through. I spent too long at home and never had the opportunity to experience anything outside of Sacramento, living in the same house for nearly 21 years. The change was long overdue. Here are a few things I noticed when I moved away from home and began living on my own:
1) You realize how hard it is to manage your lifestyle while being responsible
Living on your own means taking on all the responsibilities your parents once took care of for you. No one is going to be over your shoulder telling you to do the dishes, clean your room, do your laundry, set up a doctor's appointment etc. You can be the judge of when and if you want to do this. But then you realize what a slob you really are and start to appreciate having the clean house your parents worked hard to maintain. You also realize how much time management you need to adopt in order to have clean plates to eat on, clean clothes to wear, and appointments to maintain your health. Yeah, you can't just goof off all the time! What is this!?!?
2) You realize how much food you actually eat
Not coming home to an already prepared meal is the worst. You actually have to cook now, and that takes time! This is why most college students end up eating a bunch of garbage, because they are hungry NOW and don't have time to wait for their chicken to thaw. Ugh, the struggle. This is what makes coming home during the holidays that much more special, mom and dad can take care of me again! YUS!
3) You appreciate going back home more than you thought you might
As much as you may think you want to move away and be on your own, moving out will teach you to value and appreciate the benefits of living at home. Your parents can do your chores, cook your meals, and you can go back to being irresponsible and goofing off because mom and dad will take care of it!... Right parents?!
4) You learn that every person is for him or herself
No one cares about you like your parents. When you are living on your own, you realize that no one cares what you eat for dinner, how much dirty laundry you have, how long it's been since you washed your car, how much homework you didn't do, etc. You take care of yourself and start to not be so concerned with other people because you are a struggling college student just trying to get by and survive! Managing your school work while trying to have a healthy meal, nice fashionable clothes, a clean car, a good job, a social life, and a clean residence is nearly impossible for any first timer living on their own. We all go through it, and it's a pain. *sigh*
5) You have an increased sense of responsibility and learn to grow up
Okay, so we all act out the first time we move out. We don't have parents constantly in our ears trying to tell us we shouldn't go out so much, get so sh**faced, and perhaps should be taking on adult responsibilities. So what do we do? We do stupid things with our new friends we make, get wasted, have "adult sleepovers"... because we have the freedom to do so. But after a series of binges on these unhealthy habits, we start to realize what our parents have been telling us all along. Maybe we shouldn't get so f****d up all the time. Maybe we should start doing things in moderation and respecting ourselves, our emotions, and our bodies because it will help us get ahead and stay focused.
Moving away provides good life lessons for everyone and helps us all take the next step in life towards becoming a responsible adult. It also helps us realize that our parents have been right all along, even when we refused to accept it. So for those of you who haven't moved away from home yet, take it from someone who has: you will realize all those times you told your parents to stop bothering you and they just don't understand, they really do understand. And they are only looking out for you in the long run. Moving away will allow you to come to these same realizations.
