Having completed my first year at university, I was faced with the challenge of moving out from the halls of residence into private rented accommodation for the first time. The halls were only made available for freshers and once the first year of obligatory drinking, partying and nigh-of-just surviving was over, students were expected to rent privately, making room for the new cohorts.
Most of my peers decided to rent flats and houses that the students from years past had moved out from but, not being quite so desperate, I decided to look slightly further afield and see what other options were available. I had no issues about not living with friends and actually preferred the option of not, given I wasn’t too much of a party animal like most other students at my university. After looking around for a week or so, I found a private room for rent a few miles out from university, in a very middle-class neighbourhood, with a fairly recent divorcee who had a bedroom available.