Adjusting to life away from home

Being an expat, I have moved around quite a lot. Whether it is a school, a house or even a country, I’m never there for too long. It is difficult sometimes, but it has also taught me valuable social skills, and how to cope with change which we will all need to be able to do at some point in our lives. Leaving friends behind is always the worst aspect of the move, but with apps and sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Skype, staying in contact has never been easier. My best friend moved to London this time last year, and we’re still as close as ever because we talk on Facebook every day. Yes, it is a challenge at first but soon enough it becomes normal not to see them face to face every day and you’re chatting like you saw them an hour ago!

At home I don’t clean and I rarely cook, not because of a lack of know-how but simply because I’m almost impossibly lazy. They are both useful skills that I will need to learn how to apply to my everyday life when I am older so I really should dust off some of our old recipe books.

I am ashamed to say that something I don’t know how to do is the laundry. It completely fazes me and I don’t understand it at all. The washing machine its self looks positively threatening and the whole concept of washing powder, cold washes and hot washes confuses me to the point of physical pain. However I know that yet again, it is something I need to know how to do in the future and the quicker I learn now, the easier university life will be for me.

I am not particularly worried about university life just yet. Being only fifteen, the whole concept of leaving home and going to university seems foreign and distant but I know that everyone says that these next few years of my life will pass very quickly. Considering this, I suppose I should probably learn to do basic things like using the washing machine and cooking for my family. On the other hand, the call of my laptop, phone and twitter followers are very strong and I am very weak (probably due to me never helping out in the garden either), maybe I’ll start learning the domestic craft another time.