At some point in your life, you may have been unfortunate enough to have found yourself in something called

"student accommodation"
or
"halls of residence".

Living with 10 other teenagers is akin to being forced to live with a litter of loud, excitable puppies that don't sleep and bark not just at the postman, but at any sign of movement.

The first thing that wears you down, is the constant screaming and shouting 24/7. You think I'm joking? I wish I was.

This morning I woke up to the sound of a nocturnal dude stubbing his toe on MY doorframe!
The morning before, I woke up to a shriek as someone was terrified by a flatmate walking into the kitchen..
Three nights a week, I go to sleep vibrating (not in that way you plebeians) - thanks to the huge bass emitting subwoofer installed next to my wall.

Some weird shit happens too

One of the guys nearly strangled a girl to death when he was drunk and I had to save her - they are now best friends.

I walked into the kitchen one day to see one of the girls throwing pickled onions off the walls. Alchohol.

Coming back from a night out, the same girl (onions), appeared out of nowhere, completely smashed with a cereal box in her arms, which she then throws into the air in excitement. What falls out of the cereal box includes: Chickpeas in water, half a lemon, an avocado, and a single slice of bread.

(Get me out of here..)

That's me, in the middle. Yes, at one point, I was the life and soul of the flat. I also had the most god awful facial hair... We actually look like the cast for a shit 2000's coming of age film.

Maybe I've just got it bad because my room is closest to the kitchen... But you'd think after months of living together, the excitement would've died down a bit and people might start focusing on their work, or going out with uni friends to the pub or something.

I think I know what it is though.. the flat has a few 'key' members, when they're gone for the weekend or whatever it gets far more quiet.

I think the problem is that there's a screaming and shouting culture in my flat. And those guilty, rub off on each other. It's exponential.. it's like living in a mental asylum.

I sound like a boring shit right now.

I think one of the best weeks I've had here is when everyone went home. At least then, I could have my real friends round for days at a time.

Another annoying thing is that if you take some time to yourself and don't participate all the time, people form cliques and alliances, god forbid you get into a disagreement with one of them.

With this flat being composed mostly of girls (8:3), a lot of the cliques and alliances are built around sucking up to the Alpha Female, so-to-speak. There is a very clear hierarchy of power. Signing up to the flat, I was told it'd be 50:50, the golden ratio, two of the guys left or moved flats and were replaced by girls...

That being said, there have been a few members of the flat that have been gems and have actually been sound as fuck.

I think it's important to have time to think and rest, and space to relax, and not to worry about being sociable; but that doesn't happen in Flat 2, the flat that never sleeps.