I Like The Way You Move
By Aidan Roberts
Escaping from the family home and starting out on the adventure of higher education can be daunting. University graduate from the class of ’07, Aidan Roberts gives his quirky insight into the art of moving into your new found city well and setting yourself up for a great year.
Finally! Three whole years on from the initial ‘leaving the ‘rents’ (as in pa…rents’) I’m out for good. My dad’s spacious estate car came in very handy as the final load of my valuable earthly belongings were ousted from my folks’ lodgings and into my new home. That’s the house fifth house in 3 years! Whether you’re about to jump cities for the first time, or change the last three digits of your postcode for the new year, I dare say I’ve picked up a few pearls of wisdom during my undergrad days that can help you have your best year of Uni yet!
One – Learn from the Yorkie Bar
I like Yorkie Bars. I do. I like that they’re proper big and chunky and that the pieces are designed to fill your mouth ‘chocca-block’ (a perfect expression!) with chocolate. I also like that right from the first bite through to the last, you’re going to get that full on great taste! I think that, just like the beautiful Yorkie bar, we need to be fully generous and unstingy with everyone you end up living with right from the beginning, right through the middle and right through to the end!
Buying a wee gift, making the brews, cooking waffles and over compensating on your precious milk so there’s plenty around for your custard loving housemate, are all great ways of creating a generous atmosphere in your house! Make generosity (and not tightness) your hobby; it’s great fun and you’ll create an environment in which healthy relationships with people, even with those who are initially a bit shy or perhaps purely annoying, will begin.
Two – Love the Flat You’re At
I was in the last group of 52 that lived in our self-catered University accommodation before demolition. In hindsight, it’s fair enough to see why they had to go. Ant infestation (partly our fault I guess…we went through a period of ‘Sugar replacements such as honey and malt extract’ appreciation…), one incredibly damp and smelly room (fortunately not mine), dark and dingy, it wasn’t exactly you’re picture perfect en-suite lodging.
But to me, it was the best.
I celebrated the fact that we were one of only two self-catered flats to have our own washing machine. I sang full volume in the shower, and in the corridor, in my room and in the kitchen. The garden outside with its fruitful family of squirrels was a delightful picture of natures beauty!
Whenever I reminisce I only think how quality it was to live at ‘Wolfson’. Sure it wasn’t great when our neighbours came into our flat when we were all asleep and flooded our kitchen; I didn’t overly appreciate the ‘Greensleeves’ alarm clock that couldn’t quite awaken the owner but did manage to awake everyone else, but, adopting a positive attitude on my surroundings ensured, all in all, I loved living in ‘da Wolf’.
I reckon you should talk your new digs up, emphasise what’s good about your house, room and area. Find the nifty short cuts, the quirky shops and climb the surrounding trees. Plaster your walls with whatever takes your fancy and stuff some quality things in there that make you smile. King Solomon from the Biblioso said: ‘A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.’ Enjoy your new digs!
Three – Choose To Learn New Things
I’m born and raised a Midlander. Some would say that there’s no such thing and I’m a southerner, either way, I’m no northerner! Living in Sheffield has influenced me in many positive ways, for example, I now regularly choose to shorten my vocabulary, thus saving time. For example saying: “reet” rather than “Hello, good to see you, how are you, are you doing alright?”, and: “ut” rather than “of the” as in: “Lord ut Rings”.
There’s no question that in being placed into different situations, we learn new things. The question is, what do you want to learn? You have to learn and change the way you do things if you aspire to be and become more than you currently are. I fully believe in God and think He’s awesome. I wanted to surround myself with people who do not necessarily believe exactly what I believe, but people who won’t hold me back from pursuing what I think is a real bedrock of my life. It would have been easy for me to live in an environment that would have held me back, but I choose to hang out with great people who have either the same aspirations I do or who allow me the freedom to express myself as I want to. For me, I think this is the reason above all others why Sheffield is my home and why I love it so much.
Four – Choose Your Buddies
The same goes in anything you want to improve in, you’ve got to get around people who are either better than you, or are motivated to get better. If you want to become a singer/songwriter artiste this year rather than a three chord strummer then you’ll need to get lessons, or join a band! If you want to get out and about and explore all the opportunities your new digs has to offer than you’ll have to hang with a crowd that doesn’t lie in until late afternoon! If you want to get a firm grip on your subject and be confident heading towards the exams, you’ll need to start hanging out with the guys who go to lectures and hit the library, rather than lie in and hit the pub!
There’s a snippet of my learning’s! This year is potentially your greatest yet. Put these tips into motion and I reckon it will be!
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Aidan is a graduate in Civil Engineering from the University of Sheffield, he also heads up the Student Life Team at Hope City Church.