The art of being an adult in second year

So, you’ve left the comfort of your parents’ homes and that of first year halls and you’ve taken the first step to becoming a“dignified” and “respected” adult. Whatever that may mean. We’ve gone from paying rent once every semester to doing it what seems like every week. Oh and in case you are one of the many people (please be one of them so we could be dumb together) who are confused as to what is meant by ‘bills’ – it’s the electricity, gas, water, and internet.

I’ve learned the hard way that you have to pay them all monthly, otherwise you get letters of notice from your company. Apparently, you can’t pray them away either because they just keep on coming. Those greedy companies don’t care that they are killing trees with their infinite notices but you have to meet the payments. You just have to! Regardless, here are some tips on being an adult in the second year.

Tip 1: Organise your friends

Second year is made much simpler and enjoyable when you organise your friends or have a responsible housemate to do it for you. The responsible housemate oversees that the bills are paid on time. They might be rigid, boring and have a Rachel Berry like personality but believe me when I say, they really do have your best interests at heart with their constant nagging. Your estate agent will still find a way to hate you, but at least you will still have water running in your house for the time being.

Its a good idea to have a bin rota to avoid the inevitable argument of who’s taking the bins out tonight. It may be boring and way too grown up of a thing to do, but that’s what everyone over the age of 18 has to do I’m afraid.

How responsible of him

Tip 2: You need a social life

Join a society, take part in something like a school musical or even become an alcoholic, as many of us have. These are some ways you can maintain your sanity and brings you one step closer to becoming a fully fledged adult. Second year is also way different in terms of going out. Whilst in first year everyone is up for a night out, in second year its sometimes a good idea to be a flake and not go to the o2, have a quiet night in drinking tea and talk about the Great British Bake Off.

However, you do need a party housemate or two. Someone who is constantly up for going out every night, regardless of what state they were in the night before or even this morning. The party housemate is inevitable and they are there to balance out the ‘maturity’ of the responsible one. Even if that means doing 20 shots and collapsing outside Republic on a Monday night. They are the mechanism that keeps your social life in tact in the house.

We’ve all had one to many VKs after LetsDisko in the past.

Tip 3: Have a mid-week breakdown from time to time

I get it, the art of being an adult is a draining task. So, for the good of your health, I’d recommend having at least two or three mid-week scheduled breakdowns. Normally around this time, I like to cry about the fact that the only fun thing I’ve done successfully this week is laundry or turning up to all my lectures and seminars on time.

However, I’ve found that if you drink wine and cry loud enough, your housemates buy you cake, especially in desperate situations, like when a humanoid orange with small hands becomes president.

Adults have breakdowns all the time right?

Anyway, as much as I would like to tell you that it gets better after this, it really doesn’t.

But I do wish you all the best.