The heady sense of freedom that hostelites experience when they first start enjoying life without parental interference or curfews can often end in tears if such freedom is not enjoyed responsibly. Their freedom comes with the responsibility to take care of themselves, their health, their studies and their belongings, not to mention chores like laundry and cleaning. At home such chores would have been taken care of by their mothers or maids or at least there would have been someone else to share the work with.
When you choose to live alone in a hostel, all such chores become your individual responsibility. So when you indulge in social activities, ensure you have enough time set aside to fulfill your duties.
Key Things to Know While Living In Hostels
The newly independent young adult living on his own for the first time can lose sight of the fact that there is a downside too to such a carefree life. You have to fend for yourself everyday; there is no one to help you with your cooking or shopping. Anything you need, you’ll have to get it yourself; and there will be no one else to remind you of your deadlines for turning in assignments or exam schedules. You will be totally responsible for all your decisions and actions. If you decide to party hard every day, neglecting your studies, your health and your education are likely to suffer.
Eating Hygienic Food
Take care to ensure that you drink good potable water and that the food is cooked in clean environs and meets health department standards. Check if the tap water is potable; it is very easy to get infected with contaminated water and such infections can have a debilitating effect on your health resulting in dehydration and usually a hospital admission. So the importance of ensuring the cleanliness of your food and water cannot be overstated. Food poisoning, if contracted frequently can have a lasting effect on your digestive tract and stomach leading to lifestyle diseases like ulcers.
Maintaining Personal Hygiene
The next point to remember is your personal hygiene. If you are in a room with others and share a bathroom remember to keep your personal hygiene products secluded. It’s not a good idea to share these. You can share your toothpaste or your shaving cream or gel; but not your toothbrush, comb or shaving brush or razor. Similarly do not share your towels or bed linens or clothes without washing them before and after use by anyone else. This is the only way to prevent any infections from spreading. Anything from dandruff or a cold to syphilis or other STDs can easily spread from person to person in a cloistered environment like a hostel without proper personal hygiene.
Framing Up a Routine
To stay healthy on a campus, living in a hostel, you should adopt some easily manageable routine timed to fit into your course schedule so that you are able to stick to your routine in the longer run; else you will start off with enthusiasm and then fizzle out if your exercise routine clashes with your classes. Follow an exercise routine like walking, cycling, swimming etc which will incorporate a whole body workout with cardio helping you to burn off all the fat and extra calories from junk food around the campus. To counter the effects of such bad dietary habits, you should learn to eat salads on a routine basis, munch on some healthy nuts like almonds, figs and dates.
Try and have a few glasses of fresh fruit juice every week and to eat grains and cereals for breakfast so as to stay healthy as unavoidably you will be gorging on fast foods, pizzas and greasy burgers etc. later in the evening when hanging out with friends. Take care to drink two to three glasses of water in the morning as this helps your bowel movements and also prevents acidity from all the junk foods you eat. To take care of yourselves during stressful times like exam days by spacing your meals right and by getting enough sleep; all your midnight oil burning will come to nothing if you are not healthy enough to sit for your exams. So when living by yourself in a hostel, though there might be peer pressure to conform, ensure that you live a healthy life by eating right, sleeping tight and exercising in a light manner.
