The Pros and Cons of Living on Your Own for the First Time

So, you're moving out of your parents' place for the first time.  Maybe it's for school or you finally decided to try to go out and make it on your own.  Either way, like many things in life, there are pros and cons to an experience like this too.

Let's start with the pros:

1. You might/will learn to cook for yourself resulting in learning more about your tastes and preferences.  You will also learn how much time and preparation it takes to cook.  You will either learn to love and appreciate this or not, but it will definitely make you appreciate the effort it took for your parents and anyone else who cooks for you ever again.  It, at least for me, may also help in teaching you patience for when you go out to eat.  You begin to take into account the different preparations that need to be done for each dish and how many orders have been placed ahead of your own, and so, complain less.
2. You will learn to do laundry.  In some cases, you may ruin a few pieces of clothing along the way.  In others, you will learn what to do with certain kinds of fabrics.  You may or may not learn to love this also.  Personally, I have.  I saw it as a point in the day where I could do something just for me; I didn't have to think about anyone or anything else.  It helped to clear my mind of stressful thoughts about school and work most of the time.  Other times, it might cause a touch of tension just because it has to be done while you're focused on other work, but most of the time, it can be quite enjoyable and calming.
3. You will learn to clean.  This has its own reward whether it seems like it or not.  If you are living with roommates and you don't think you're the neatest person in the world, you might realise that you prefer things much cleaner, still, than others.  As a direct result of that, you will learn what you like to keep particularly clean, how clean, and how often you need to clean that thing or space.  It's a lot of work, but you will feel so good once you have your own space that you can keep clean to your specific preferences because seeing a place that's much cleaner than what you might have lived in previously and having it stay that way brings so much peace to your mind.
4. You will learn to shop more economically.  You will look for cheaper items that still satisfy your needs.  Finding quality in cheaper products doesn't have to be difficult, it just takes a little experimentation.
5. In connection with your shopping more economically, you may also find ways to live more environmentally friendly, if you're the type of person who worries about this, while also wishing to remain frugal.  One of the best things I have happened to stumble upon online was cheap ways to be environmentally friendly, to be honest.  I didn't know that living frugally and being more environmentally conscious could be two living styles that coincide.
6. You start to realise that you may have way more stuff than you need to live be they knick knacks, towels, electronics, what have you.  You start to notice the things that you brought with you and what you use versus what you don't.
7. You begin to appreciate everything your parents do for you even more, if you haven't begun to done so already, because you learn how much money and work goes into supporting yourself and think about how many people your parents are/were supporting on top of themselves.

Some cons to living on your own for the first time are:

1. You realise that you are forced to learn to do a bunch of things on your own and quite quickly, such as how to pay your bills, how to cook, clean, shop, do laundry.  But, it's not the end of the world.  Some of these come easier than others and you might learn to enjoy some of these things.
2. If you are living completely on your own, you have no one with whom you can share the chores.  Not always a loss depending on your cleaning style and preferences, but it does mean all of the work is yours to do alone.
3. You realise how much work and money actually goes into living on your own.
4. You may have to work more to meet your cost of living depending on where you are and your particular living style.
5. You develop your own living style and rhythm to the point where it might/will become difficult to live with someone else whether that means moving back in with your parents or living with a roommate or friend.  This can lead to relationship problems with your family, friends, or roommates because if you are not particularly confrontational or generally less vocal, you may begin to develop resentments towards people you have to live with, however temporary it may be, simply because you don't feel like you could come forward and talk about your issues with whomever it is you are sharing space.
• As a side note, this can always be worked on so that you can live with people comfortably.  It just takes a while to get used to.  Trust me.  This is something I've been worrying about lately in terms of living with Boyfriend in the future, but having seen me go through what I did with my past roommates and the two of us generally being more open with each other than with other people, we can see this working out.  He's a lot calmer about it than I am and have been, but his faith and support in everything has been incredibly helpful in making me feel better about our potential living situation.

As many cons as there are, and as much detail as I might have gone into them, living on your own truly is a great learning experience that you may or may not want to leave should you get into it for long enough.  It gives you a huge sense of independence that you don't have while living with your parents and the feeling of self-reliance can be a wonderfully rewarding one.  It is definitely worth trying or getting into when you have the means and opportunity to do so.