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Latwell Nyangu Youth Interactive Writer

Being a student is all about balance as I always say.

And life at college is not black and white. College fuels your desire to navigate the grey areas, finding the answers to life.

But this week my duty is to descend on the life at hostels.

They normally say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas but I come in peace, what happens at hostels should get to the streets.

Don’t cohabit fellow students.

Once a hosteller falls into a bad company, he or she has chances of going astray.

The mess food or the tiffin food is usually terrible at the hostels.

I still remember being served food that would not even make me salivate and my option was to buy some alternative.

This is the same scenario with any student who can’t bear the type of food at the dining hall.

But there has always been a misconception about hostels, for example daily alcohol, cigarettes and what not.

I will not totally be denying it as I was a hosteller for several years but let me clear this up, there is a very amazing and beautiful life at hostels beyond this alcohol and other stuff.

Hostel life gives you amazing friends and endless memories, everything you do in a hostel is just wonderful and you will surely remember it all your life.

Yes, all this comes while at hostel but one of the most frightening things is that students are cohabiting at hostels.

Cohabiting has been associated with a number of problems including sexually transmitted diseases and HIV and AIDS, abortions, sexual abuse and violence, low academic performance, increased cost of medical care and unwanted pregnancies.

Recently, I was writing some exams, and I had to look for accommodation. I was surprised to see that some female and male students were satying in the same rooms.

I then enquired, I was told that I am not fashionable, ndakanzi wakasara, this is life at college.

With all the freedom, as a student you have to maintain the right equilibrium between class, studying, responsibilities, money management, free time, and time with friends are all new aspects of life that everyone is trying to figure out.

In college, it all seems to happen at once. Maybe it is the first time you don’t have a set schedule, or a parent telling you what you cannot and can do, or you are trying to make friends while getting good grades in harder classes.

Hostel life with its many advantages has some drawbacks also. Students coming for the first time to the hostel find an entirely new atmosphere. The freedom of the hostel at times leads them astray. Their parents are not there to check them. This may lead them into evil ways. They begin to smoke, gamble and at times even to drink.

A daily visit to some night clubs becomes a routine. Some students spend money lavishly and even borrow money from their friends. Living away from parents makes students do what they can’t do in their homes.

They fail to choose good companions. The unlimited freedom proves harmful for such students.

Students in hostels also face some challenges that If they don’t get proper money from their parents, they develop a tendency of evil habits and to divert their categories under the influence of bad company.

 It is also possible that if he looks at a rich co-hosteller spending extra money and enjoying himself, he or she develops an inferiority complex which spoils his character.

If it’s a female student, she will be forced into finding ‘sponsors’.

On the other hand, the absence of loving care which only their parents and family can give tend to a nagging sense of loneliness.

Fellow students, yours truly knows what is happening at the hostels, but lease don’t cohabit.

My duty this week is to urge you my fellow not to go astray just because you are away from home.

Pursue your academic journey and achieve it.

Recently I wrote an article where some more than 20 students from a certain high school were penalised for invading female hostels.

Although the activity was in connivance, they were all disciplined.

These are things that students don’t want known out there by anyone close to them, especially those at home.

Last week my story was on the dilemmas of a commuting student.

I mentioned a plethora of challenges on how traveling students face challenges and the effects they bring on their academic performance.

But many students are now opting to stay at the hostels.

And there are students who move in from a different town for their education, generally hostels are meant for such students but lately even students from the same town are opting for a hostel.

There they live a kind of life which is different from their life at home. This life in the hostel is known as hostel life.

If you really want to know about real life, then you should pass from hostel life that gives you a sense of responsibility as well as independence.

In a hostel, a student comes in contact with other students of the same age and thinking.

The student tends to acquire many good qualities from roommates and other hostellers and at the same time they are also vulnerable to the bad influence of the others.

Of the bad influences, cohabiting is now seen as fashionable.

 When a student sees his next-door neighbour daily taking morning exercise, he also gets inspiration.

One good student may become an example for other 25 hostellers.

While mutual cooperation, sympathy, and love are characteristics of hostel life.

It will be an exaggeration to say the hostel is the only place where all-round development of personality is possible. 

On the other hand, few boys who have an addiction to smoking and drinking may also influence their roommates to adopt  the same habit  or other fellow students.

Happiness to all hostellers, but avoid cohabiting!