So this is a topic i've wanted to write about for quite a while now. I'm not looking for sympathy i'm simply just documenting a time in my life in which I know thousands of other young people are in the same position. So first lets go back a bit to this time last year.
I was single, in shop work and had no idea what I was meant to do in life. All my life i've paid into my savings to one day try and be able to buy a new car or be able to put a deposit on a flat. Well that day has very quickly come a long and bitten me on the arse. A year later and i'm in a job I love and engaged with a wedding to pay for but there is also the very scary prospect of looking for a place where my fiancee and I can settle down.
The reality is we may not be able to move out of my parents house for at least 5 years. With the rise of a shortage of houses and the ever increasing house prices, being able to own our own place just seems like a wild dream. Now were not silly we don't expect to find a reasonably priced 4 bed house with a huge garden for our first place, no all we want is a nice little flat that we can put our stamp on and live finally as an independent couple. Unfortunately living in the south also increases house prices making it all the more difficult for young people to get on the housing ladder.
Due to the nature of my job I go into so many sheltered accommodation building with endless amounts of flats dedicated to those over 60 now why cant they do the same thing and provide reasonably priced flats for first time buyers?!
I feel fortunate to of been able to find my soulmate so early on in life however it still feels like its going to take us a long time to settle down and one day even have a family that we can afford to build.
Yes we're lucky that my parents are letting us live with them so that we can save rather than rent and we know they do a huge amount for us on a daily basis. But I do not want to spend the whole of my twenties living with them and feeling claustrophobic in my own home.
Now you may think i'm being over dramatic or that it wont take that long and maybe your right it wont but right now this is how I feel and will probably continue to feel for a long time.
The facts are more people are living at home with their parents because they simply can not afford their own place.
As i'm writing this i'm sat surrounded by furniture in my room that i've had since I was a baby and for twenty years I've looked out of the same window and seen different neighbours come and go. This bird needs to fly its nest with her hubby to be but it just feels like there is a cage penning us in.
Phew now that this is in the open I don't feel like a weight has been lifted but that this is just a slow rollercoaster that we have to wait out. And really thats all we can do... or win the lottery, yeah that would help ;)
Until next time, Sophie x
