Ah, the hostel! An amalgamation of drama, craziness, and laughter. I have to say, moving from the comfort of your comfortable, warm home, with home cooked food to a hostel is tough, but fun. I’ve learned and experienced things I could have never learned anywhere else in the 4 years of having stayed in a hostel.
Hostel life constitutes a lot of memories and we cherish the moments spent over there throughout our lives. There are lots of facts which make hostel life a great fun to live in.
Learn to Be Independent – From childhood, you have been taken care by your parents. For every little thing, you reached out to your parents. But once you come to a new city/place, you realize that moving forward you will have to do all the things on your own. There is no support or backup you can really rely on. Learning to be independent is the biggest lesson one learns while staying at a hostel.
It’s like a permanent sleepover. – Late nights with bowls of Maggi and a good old fashion scary movie are a regular here. And even if you can’t find someone watching a movie, you can always bum around in your friend’s room in abject boredom, giggling and laying around like vegetables. It’s like a sleepover that never ends, how great is that?!
There’s always a friend when you need one. – My friend has a theory that the worst things in life always happen to you between the hours of 11 pm to 5 am when it’s difficult for a friend to help you out. But in the hostel, you know you can always find someone who’s ready with some Maggi and a good sappy movie, and a shoulder to cry on, no matter what time of the day, or night it is. There’s always someone to catch when you fall in a hostel. Always.
Friends aka Mom aka Doctor- SO TRUE! No matter how old I get, I always want my mom when I don’t feel good. But what do you do in a hostel?! Your roomies turn into your moms, your friends come up with all sorts of remedies when you fall sick. Your roomies check on you whether or not you have eaten your food and medicines, just like how your mom would. You have an in house doctor ready always!!
Learn to manage expenses – Being at home, you used to get the pocket-money and we tend to happily spend it wherever we wished. But once you come out of your home, you have monthly expenses that you need to spend sensibly. When you are given a particular amount of money for a month you definitely learn its value. You remain cautious while lavishly spending your money keeping in mind that you may need in future for some important work. Hostel life teaches you to use your money wisely.
You meet all kinds of people – Ultimately, I think the hostel is a brilliant life experience because you meet tons of different kinds of people, and amongst the tears, and laughter, you learn how to effectively deal with all of them, you learn about different cultures, different walks of life. And besides your degree, I think that’s the truly valuable education you receive in college.
So, you can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new. Life begins at the end of your comfort zones!! Hostel Life is a perfect analogy for this!!