The unknown doesn’t have to be daunting

LEAVING home can be daunting for anyone, especially at 18, when you are still so young and moving two hours away to a town that is foreign and unknown to you.

That is exactly what I did when I chose to leave home and move to Teesside University to study criminology and sociology.

When the day came for me to leave home and leave behind my mum and twin brother I was terrified.

So overwhelmed by the unknown I naturally feared the worst.

What if people didn’t like me?

What if I hated it over there?

How would I cope on my own?

So many unanswered questions swam around my head.

Pulling into my accommodation, realisation set in.

Leaving the car with my belongings and re-arranging them in my new room, familiarity started to set in.

Seeing everyone else also fetching their belongings to their new home and realising everyone was just as nervous as me by the extra polite way they were speaking, made me start to relax a little bit.

After five minutes of being with my neighbours and the people I was going to be living with for the next year, I stopped feeling like a little fish in a big pond and started to settle in.

Looking back now, moving away was the best thing I ever did, and my advice to anyone in doubt would be to just go for it because it is a risk definitely worth taking.

My confidence now is at an all-time high and has pushed me to go more places and do more things, for example, work experience with the Advertiser.

So to anyone struggling to make the decision whether to stay at home and study or move away, I’d tell you to move away every time.

You won’t regret it!