They are few things that have changed my life as much as moving out for university. I think everyone should if they have the ability, and they are a couple of reasons why.

Choosing whether to do this in Canada is a hard choice, much harder than America. In America, they are tons of good schools. This isn’t to say Canada doesn’t have tons of good schools too, but it is to say they are not all located across the country. Many would count Ontario schools at a par above all else. Whichever way you look at it, you cannot dispute that state schools in the US are generally top-notch, it’ not always like that here.

And so the tension to move out is much greater here. When I was deciding to move out, I did it mainly because it seemed much more obvious to me that jobs were better in Ontario. Who really knows if this is true, I can’t really comment too much yet (I have not worked here yet) but maybe they are. That was one reason. Another one was that I wanted to figure stuff out on my own. My hometown never really felt like a constraint, but it did feel like something that sucked the life out of me. It felt like I needed to see more things and handle more of life on my own.

So I decided to do so, at any rate. As I said, it changed my life. Not in all good ways.

One way it changed my life (and was good) was that I finally felt like I could be myself. I’m not sure if this was high-school or my hometown, but for many years I felt like I was living in the shadow of a character I was trying to build. Within the aspirations to go to a good university and get the best grades and do the most clubs, I was preventing myself from having a personality outside these things. I didn’t stop doing these things in university, but it did feel like I finally had the chance to become more of myself while doing them. I guess you don’t really have to move out to accomplish this, but your habits are far more likely to perpetrate over a longer period of time if you’re in your hometown. Home is home, it’s hard to break habits.

Another way is changed my life was in teaching me right and wrong. Everyone tends to know right from wrong when they get to university, it isn’t really something moving out of your hometown will innately give you. What leaving your hometown does give you is situations where you have to make the right choice and no one else is watching. It’s the difference between waking up early and sleeping in late. Between going out for an hour or studying for one more. Between being yourself and not being yourself. These are things you need to figure out to do on your own. For the first time in my life, I was left to make these choices with no real impediment from my family, friends or anyone else I knew. It is never easy to make these choices. I far too often made the wrong ones. But you should make the wrong ones earlier in your life. These mistakes are costly later on in life, and while they are still costly now - it’s easier to correct course.

Maybe one more. Moving out taught me how to be with myself more. A skill a seldom learned at home, living alone really teaches you, well - to live alone. I found my first year to be incredibly isolating. New town (big town), new friends (few friends) - all made for an experience that left me sitting by myself a lot. I don’t mean to paint a sad picture, in-fact - the complete opposite. I’m trying to paint a picture of appreciation for yourself. I never knew more about myself, about what I liked and disliked, about what I wanted to do and who I was - until I lived alone. It turns out thinking by yourself does a few things.

Those are three good things. I wanted to give one bad one for each but I couldn’t think of as many. Here is one big one.

It’s not homesickness that gets you - it’s “routine-sickness”. Spontaneity is hard to deal with. I feel like I’ve never really gotten into a routine since I started university. Some people will say you shouldn’t worry about this when you’re young, and to some extent it’s true. You shouldn’t constrain yourself to a routine at the expense of missing out on other opportunities, on experiences you may only have once ever. But at the same time, the lack of a routine felt detrimental to me. I didn’t (and still) don’t like waking up and not knowing what exactly will pop up. I guess some of this would have happened if I was at home, but by in large going home and living at home created some sort of routine.

There are more things, no doubt. But as a 2nd year student that’s all that comes to mind. I’ll edit this later most likely.