At the age of 18 I took the plunge and decided to move to university. Granted, I only lasted a month but I will share some of my experiences.
The thought of me moving away to university to my family was daunting. I think every family worries about the day their children move out but having diabetes doesn’t help this situation. However, the reason I decided to leave was not necessarily due to having diabetes and my experience was mostly positive in terms of my diabetes. Here are some of my tips for moving away to university:
My top tips:
- Make friends and tell them about your diabetes – asking someone to check on you, in the morning, after a night out is important.
- Be organised – this is an essential with having diabetes, if you’re not organised things begin to go wrong. Always stock up on snacks and hypo treatments.
- Register at the doctors – if you’re not planning on going home often you will need to do this to order prescriptions and the registration could take a few days/weeks.
- Know your limits – personally for me, going out every night was not good. Knowing when to say no is important.
My overall experience moving away to university was very positive and I don’t regret it. The reason I moved home was because I decided I wasn’t ready to begin studying again and I wasn’t enjoying where I was living or my living arrangements.
My house mates were really supportive of my diabetes and I often would have a knock on the door to check I was alright after a night out.
Having diabetes didn’t hold me back whilst I was at university, I think this was due to me staying organised and not ignoring it. I did go back to university but commuted the following year and successfully graduated in 2019.
Sweet Enough 