Studying away from hometown was a unique experience for the 17-year-old me where I stayed inside the hostel of Selangor Matriculation College with 3 roommates, washing my own clothes, settling my own meals and making decisions without the interference of parents (this is the best part, hehehe). I am grateful for this one-year experience that prepared myself in getting into university, in which I had stayed in the campus hostel for another 3 years. Unlike in matriculation, in order to stay inside the campus you will have to compete with fellow students to get a place in the hostel by earning points through all sort of activities. You sit in the hall without knowing what the speaker was talking about; you went to the meeting while hoping that it ended soon; you grabbed a position in the committee board of an event with no passion about the event. But it's comfortable to stay in the campus hostel. Free electricity and water, free internet, free cleaning services for the washrooms, and free maintenance of your room if anything went wrong. All these with a semesterly fee which is pretty cheap.
Despite of the benefits, staying in the campus hostel was tiring for me. I was tired of pretending. Pretending to be interested in some random events, pretending to be eager to participate in sport day, pretending to be a committed member of the hostel. I had been wanting to move out a few semesters earlier, but everyone was staying and fighting to get a place, and I succumbed to peer pressure. At the end, I moved out during the final semester of my study in the campus, renting a single room in an apartment with my hamster, Popcorn who finally got to roam freely in the room without worrying if there is cat outside. The location is strategic, I can easily get my meals downstairs, walk 3 minutes to reach the classes and within the reach of campus bus service easily. There is a kitchen where I can prepare my own meals and a private bathroom with my own water storage that I have no problem surviving the water disruptions. The most important thing is, this prepares me for my working days where I might live away from home, renting a room and managing my daily life by myself.
It's the kind of responsibility that you can't find when you are staying inside the campus. You have to take care of basically everything from hygiene, bills (rental, utilities and internet) to personal safety (no safety officer around). The best thing that I have learnt from renting a room outside of campus is I am more aware of where my money goes. Each month an amount of money will be consistently deducted from the bank account instead of every semester, so it serves as a reminder to spend money wisely. Anyway, I highly suggested fellow university students to spend at least one semester living outside the campus. It might be outside your comfort zone, but I am sure you will learn something by stepping out of it.