Three Daily Activities Which Make You Feel At Home by Jasper Evans
All images by Hamish Kale
One of the things that can make University a mental challenge is that many students lack a sense of ‘home’ while they attend. Students who leave their family home take a brave plunge into independence and adulthood. I was certainly looking forward to independence before I entered the English with Creative Writing course in September 2018, though for this transition can appear daunting and isolating, rather than full of possibility.
I moved to Falmouth from South-West London, 260 miles away, and spent my first year in University accommodation at Glasney View, thrilled to have a huge room with a double bed and an en-suite bathroom to myself. Since then, I have moved three times into successively smaller rooms and I’m currently living as a lockdown guest in my girlfriend’s apartment in Plymouth, taking all my classes online because of the current COVID-19 restrictions.
Moving so regularly makes it difficult to get settled in. I remember at the beginning of my second year I carried all my boxes through town in the rain by myself to move into a new house on Old Hill. 5 months later, I carried them all out again after a breakup with my then girlfriend and had to quickly find a new place to live. Student life is often transitional like this. The buildings we call home, the beds we sleep in and even some of our friendships are made temporary by the constant readjustment and relocation. We know that next year, or the one after that, or at the end of University we won’t be calling any of these places our ‘home’ anymore. We’ll be somewhere new; old places will be left behind and old faces will have moved on as well.
It’s bearable because it’s temporary; we only have to do this for a few years but it’s uncomfortable nonetheless. I am the kind of person who likes to put down roots. I like to know the people in my community; I like to learn the area down to the finest detail, every shortcut and hidden gem pub, shop, and hilltop bench. I want to build a relationship with a place, and a home, make it my own and shape it around me. You cannot do that in just eight months in a rented student room, in a shared house with five other people and a letting agent who tries to hold you responsible for stains on the carpet which were there before you even moved in and will remain once you’re gone, outlasting all of us.
Being housebound, possibly alone or at a family member’s house, for so long over the lockdown has trapped a lot of students in this ‘homeless’ limbo. I put ‘homeless’ in quotation marks to acknowledge the privilege we experience compared to the genuinely homeless who have been forced to experience this modern disaster from the vulnerability of the streets. Especially in the deep midwinter we should all consider how horrific that is.
Nevertheless, the governments order for students not to return to university, while fair and necessary, does increase this displacement and inability to feel that anywhere we stay is a home. We do not know when things will change; we do not know how long the travel ban will last. The uncertainty is stressful; it prevents us from relaxing, all of which is especially dangerous for those who already suffer with their mental health. Personally, the best way I have found to alleviate this is to make ‘home’ something I can use routines to establish wherever I happen to be stuck.
What do I mean? Firstly, I wake up at 7am and go for a run every other morning (every day would be too much effort), taking advantage of the laws regarding outdoor exercise. I am in Plymouth, and when I first arrived to stay with my girlfriend over lockdown, I didn’t know the area too well. I found bits of the city I like; Royal William Yard, Devils Point and the hill running around the coast and up to Smeaton’s Tower (a huge stripey lighthouse), so those became the parts I run around. I like the views in the morning as the sun is coming up, and the rush I get from the exercise which puts me in a slightly brighter mood for the entire day. I’m also reading for 4 hours every day, I usually do it from 8am until 12pm, right after I’ve finished my run. My goal is to finish 2 books a week. Again, this puts me in a good mood, and because I’m staying with my girlfriend, I have access to all of her books which I haven’t read before, so I don’t have to buy any new ones. Very lucky!
After that, I spend the afternoon working on coursework and whatever personal projects I’m currently invested in, and from about 5pm I relax with my girlfriend. I’m also doing a lot of cooking (my girlfriend and I take turns making meals); we got a Heston Blumenthal recipe book for Christmas and it’s great! There’s a butternut squash soup recipe which is unbelievably good. Cooking makes me feel happy. Finishing the day with a tasty dinner I’m proud of, and has had some extra effort put in, somehow makes me look forward to every mealtime.
All of these things are the same tricks I’ve been using for the past year over two different student accommodations. Even though I can’t make them completely my own space, or entirely homely, I can take a permanent sense of home to wherever I go. I know I’m happier when I’ve exercised in the morning. I know I’m more relaxed when I’ve been reading by a window in the daylight for a while. I know that having good food regularly lifts my mood, and that doing all of these things together gives me the energy to actually be productive in my work instead of procrastinating. As long as I’m doing these things wherever I am, I have stability and a sense of home. It becomes something I’m carrying around within myself, rather than depending on my environment to provide. A set of habits, rather than a particular setting.
I tailored these routines to what makes me happy and the stimulation I require. What works for me could sound like a nightmare to someone else, but for other people it might just involve a scheduled walk, or dedicated time to paint, or listen to music, or skype with a friend, or play with a pet or sibling, or just have a cup of tea. It doesn’t have to be physical, and it doesn’t have to be a chore. All that matters is that you dedicate a bit of time every day to doing three or four things which improve your mood, and you do those things wherever you go. It eases the stress of feeling trapped by the lockdown and smooths the transition between new places when you have to move.
I think, especially now, that’s something everyone could benefit from.
Words by Jasper Evans
Images by Hamish Kale
Edited by Sophie Williams