Living on campus is a great thing. A lot of people live on campus because they live too far away to commute. For the first three years of my life here at Cabrini I lived on campus because I knew I wouldn’t be able to live at home with my parents anymore.
It was great. I did anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. If I wanted to take a five-hour nap, I could. If I wanted to just lie in bed and watch TV all day, I could. And no matter where I happened to be, it would only take me five minutes to get to any destination on campus.
My own computer was hooked up to my own Internet jack and I had an entire room to myself to do all the work I needed to do.
I could wake up at 10:50 a.m., throw some clothes and make up on and still be in my seat before class started at 11:05 a.m.
Now, it is not so convenient. The price of living on campus was too high for my parents to co-sign my loan so they said I would have to live at home. I was going to spend my senior year living at home, alone, with my mother.
This was and still is the hardest thing I have ever had to do.
When I am at home, I am not allowed to sleep till whenever I want. I have to get up when my mom gets up . Not because she makes me but, because it is pretty hard to sleep through her getting ready in the morning and it isn’t easy falling back asleep.
Getting my work done is nearly impossible unless I want to wake up at 3 a.m. because the computer is always in use. It is either that or spend all my time up at school in the newsroom doing it there and frankly, it is hard to do that with friends walking in and out of the room all day long.
Even though I only live 20 minutes from Cabrini, sometimes it takes me 45 minutes to an hour trying to get here or home with the traffic. I no longer have my 10 minutes to get ready and my five minutes to walk to Founders.
I don’t know why my parents thought I would be saving money by not living on campus. Now I just spend it in gas because of the outrageous prices! If I knew this was going to be a lose-lose situation, I would have much rather taken my chances losing on campus rather than off.
When I am at home, my mom needs to know everything I’m doing and where I’m going and who I am going with. Well, as a 23-year-old, I think I am a little old to have to give my whereabouts at all times of the day.
Living at home after living on campus is hard. Your sense of freedom is somehow taken a way a little. Even if you move back in with your parents after graduation, to them you will always be their “little baby” and no mater what, they are going to want to try and protect you.
In your head, no matter how close you are to your parents, you are a college graduate and you shouldn’t have to answer to your parents anymore. You are an adult!
Well kids, I’m sorry to say that no matter what you do and how great your parents are, living with them after not being in their house for more that a weekend or so is going to be tough.
So my advice is: stay on campus for as long as physically possible and when you get a job after graduation continue your life of independence because if you go back under the protection of your parents, it might be a while until you get out again.
