When you’re studying at university it’s easy to forget about the outside world. It becomes everything important: your social life your romantic prospects, hobbies and idea for a career. It provides a full time job in studying and also possibly a part time job to earn some extra money!
Going home for the holidays can come as a shock to the system, as can returning to university afterwards. Going home to family has the odd effect of regressing you to the level of maturity you had as a child. You’re no longer an independent young adult making their own way in the world. You’re your parents child again, maybe entirely dependent on them, or perhaps a sulky, argumentative teenager.
Today we’re presenting a short guide on transcending this problem and getting yourself back on track as a responsible, independent student.
Establish a Routine
Once you’ve dropped your bags at your accommodation and collected your books from whatever storage for students you are using, start to be systematic. A good way of shoring up your identity as an independent adult is to ensure your house doesn’t look like a stereotypical student den of disorder.
This is particularly important if you’re also moving into a new house. Establishing a cleaning rota and routine makes sure your house won’t collapse into the kind of deposit-endangering mess it takes a full week to recover from.
Work out who’s cleaning to which bit of the house, and make sure the worst jobs are fairly distributed: if one person is stuck cleaning the toilet all year, they’re going to get resentful, and that’s not the mature solution to that problem! Making a decision to tackle things fairly reminds you that you are mature adult.
Catch Up With Friends
You need to remind yourself of the life and framework you’ve built up at university: get in touch with your friends and spend some time with them. This will remind you of who you are while you’re studying. People tend to mirror those around them, so as long as you’ve built yourself a supportive network of friends who know how to work as well as how to relax you’ll all prop each other up and ensure you’re acting like responsible adults, not children running wild!
Do Some Work
Starting as you mean to go on is something of cliché, but there is value to getting some academic work done as soon as you get back to university. Even if it’s only taking a look at your reading list and making some reservations at the library, it reminds you what you’re there for and concentrates you on your main priorities for the term.