An Ode to Student Flats

by Laura McDonald

For many, coming to university is synonymous with coming into your own. From the new second years finding their feet out of halls, to the postgrads who couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, your student flat is your own personal space to study, party, and really just live your life in the way you so choose. There’s going to be cooking disasters, hallway photoshoots, and the extremely difficult decision of whether the fairy lights or the pretend crawling ivy belongs on the wall with the big mirror, and it’s all going to happen in this place we call home.

Now, every flat has its quirks, there’s no disputing that. Personally, my flatmate and I have had suspicious crawl spaces in the bathroom, upside down plug sockets, scary gaps in the floorboards, and a kitchen ceiling which fell in - I don’t know about you, but I think regular sprinklings of plaster dust into your food has to be great for your immune system, right? And, of course, there’s the classics; leaks, rats and mould… but despite their *interesting interior design choices*, we all love our flats.

To be honest, if you worked out how many pints of fun your monthly rent money could buy, you’d never want to make another payment, but it’s worth it because your flat houses not only you, but so many of your university memories. That weird stain on the carpet is from that particular drinking game that you are NEVER PLAYING AGAIN, the generic print of VW campervans in pseudo-Andy Warhol style will always be in the background of your keepsake polaroids, and your front door which always seems to shut with a bang to expose your flatmate for coming home at 6am after totally not spending the night with their ex again. You’ll have existential crises on the battered living room sofa, fuelled by last minute essay writing and too much coffee, and you’ll find yourself buckled with laughter on the hallway floor when your flatmate said that one thing that was so funny at the time, which will live on as an inside joke only you guys will truly understand. Your flat is the place you come home to after nights out which seem to last forever and then there’s six of you squished into your double bed. Then in the next morning, whilst a hangover shared sure as hell isn’t a hangover halved, at least you’ve got your pals around to share funny stories from the night before whilst you’ve got your head down the toilet. You and your flatmates will make your own flat traditions, quite likely give each other experimental haircuts, and you’ll all try your hand at being Mary Berry when taking turns attempting something for Bake Off each week. After living in such close proximity, there will be very little that you don’t know about your flatmates, possibly for better or worse, but you’ll make friends and memories which will last a lifetime.

Living in your student flat is also, of course, a great way to learn some important life skills, even if you still take your washing home to your parents sometimes. You learn to adult by communicating effectively with your landlord, paying your bills on time, as you really can’t do your uni work (or binge Netflix) in this technological age without electricity, and realising that sometimes you do need to skip that night out to finish a project for uni. Your student flat might also be the place which teaches you to look after yourself and your home, as you eventually figure out how many days is truly too many days in a row to eat pesto pasta, and that lighting another candle really is no substitute for taking the bin out.

Ultimately, it’s not the flat itself that really matters, but the time in your life with which it is associated. So, make the most of hosting parties, late night giggles and conversations with your flatmates, and legging it from your bed to that 9am lecture in record time. Whether you’re still at university or you completed your degree years ago, you’ll find yourself reminiscing about your old flats, the things that you did there, and what it meant to you. Make a home out of your student flat because there really is no other place like it, because there is no other time in your life like university.