Youth Incorporated Magazine

Times have gone when the short ride of the-then trending Bajaj scooters took one to college. Today, it is the airplanes and trains carrying countless wonderous eyes to lanes they’ve never met with. Such is the story of most teens these days, who leave the comfort of their homes and the smiles of their families and hold onto those memories as their lives take a turn on a new path by moving out of home.

The first journey to a new city is always a mix of fidgety fingers, an excited spirit and a nervous mind. It is rightly said that ‘the unknown is always the scariest.’ However, it is also the most important after moving out of home because you find a part of yourself you’ve never been acquainted with before only in the unfamiliar.

Initial days out of home pass with shy first conversations, confused routes, and hesitant footsteps but also an enthusiasm to explore the sudden irrelevance. It is only when you see the unwashed clothes piling up on the edge of the bed, the home-packed food running out and the bedsheets crumpling that you realise it is time to take charge.

It is that moment when you sit near the window sill staring at the starry night sky and the moonlight seems to tell you, ‘You got to be responsible, kid.’ Time tests your routines as you conduct a calm morning sipping a cold brew, almost forgetting you need to rush for college and then you stumble and run, get a bus, and reach your class huffing. You see your mates laughing and relief takes over you, your professor hasn’t arrived yet. You wipe your sweat, walk into the class and promise yourself to wake up a few minutes earlier the next morning. This is when you finally learn to teach yourself, hold yourself accountable and be humble, not hard on yourself after finally moving out of home. Rushed car rides with your parents scolding you and making you reach school on the ring of the first bell as class commences appears like a distant memory.

Leaving the old desk behind in your home, makes you lose the inspiration that it gave you and your creativity struggles to pour out. Hours go by, a filled new desk but still a blank page. This makes you get up, wander beyond your hostel and seize creativity elsewhere. It isn’t your plushy chair anymore, your long table laden with certificates, rather you find a part of your passion everywhere out of home.

That first grocery shopping, handling money well and finding the cheapest markets to save yourself some money by the end of the month makes you realise there is so much in each day that you earlier never crossed paths with before moving out of home. You finally settle on a budget, designate days to buy yourself supplies and learn to cook food with youtube recipes for all the days your maid bails out on you.