Just like any other uni student living in halls, my moving-in day was not just scary because it was the first time I had to move away from the comfort of my family, but also because it was the day I was going to finally meet the people I would be living with for the next year. Luckily, I have my own room, but I still have to share a kitchen and bathrooms with these 7 strangers. This was my biggest concern before moving away- what if I don’t get on with these people?

My moving in day- My parents and I shuttled luggage from the bottom of the staircase into my bedroom, meeting some of my flatmates along the way. All I really learnt from those interactions was the persons name and their course.

It was later on, after my parents had taken me out for a final lunch and then left, that I properly met my flatmates. I considered sitting alone in my room just on my phone. Instead, I went into the kitchen and on the way I let everyone with an open door know that I was going there. This was the best decision I made that day and if you take one thing away from this post it’s that choosing the scarier action is the better decision.

More people joined me as their parents left and I sat in the kitchen for a few hours just chatting with my new flatmates. Whilst the conversation was inevitably a bit awkward at times it was reassuring to finally know for certain that I’m living with nice, interesting people. It happened to be one of my flatmates birthday so we celebrated with a cake and then later on went to a small welcome event for my halls and out to Spoons.

Now, my flatmates are some of my closest friends at uni.
However, it isn’t the end of the world if yours aren’t. Some of my course-mates aren’t particularly close with their flatmates but they have other friends in their halls, societies and on their course. We’ve all heard the flatmate horror stories, but chances are that even if your flatmates aren’t the right type of people for you they won’t ruin your experience. Flatmates are down to chance and they really aren’t the be all and end all of university.

That said, my flatmates are great and I wouldn’t want to live with anyone else.