Now, I’m not suggesting that all student accommodation is akin to a hovel…but sometimes, it can be a little bit questionable. Dark corners, black mould, and grubby floors are commonplace in student life – and that’s all part of the package. But sometimes, just sometimes, even we students crave something more.
We crave community, a word that is rapidly losing meaning in modern life. Digital devices overcome the need to communicate in person; conversation becomes taxing as it invades our lives even from our beds, and people forget that community is what drives our society.
It is so easy to become isolated as a student. Too easy for the dark shadows in the corner of your bedroom to morph into loneliness, reaching dark fingers forward to bash away at your mental health. It sounds cheesy, I know, but I’m going to say it anyway: to drive those shadows away, we need to invite light into our homes (mouldy though they may be). This light comes in the form of people.
Inviting people into our homes is an act as old as humanity itself. Sharing food comes hand in hand. There is nothing in this world more wholesome and lovely than a group of people sharing good food and good chats, building their own community in the warm hub of the kitchen. That’s right – it’s time to Pride and Prejudice this bad boy. Let’s get the tunes on, the candles lit, the excellent boiled potatoes (“It’s been many years since I’ve had such an exemplary vegetable”) on the stove, and take a turn around the room. It’s time for dinner parties to become a key element of student life once more.
The dinner party is not dead, just perhaps slightly forgotten. Despite what the headline may suggest, there is little art to throwing a dinner party. For your convenience, we have listed the key ingredients.
The Student’s Dinner Party will need…
- 1+ guest(s) from any category of relationship. Friends, acquaintances, enemies if you fancy a fight…you’ll be surprised at how many people will turn up if food is promised.
- Space to host said guests. It doesn’t matter if said space is mouldy, or messy, or a bit cramped…we’re all students here. We get it. There’s nothing wrong with perching on an upturned laundry basket.
- Food! A key element of a dinner party. Dinner is sort of expected…even if you just split a pizza order.
- Drinks of some description— unless your bathroom is truly too unacceptable to allow people to enter it.
Dinner parties are the most wonderful excuse to invite light and laughter into your home. Set a theme and celebrate cuisines from across the globe. Have a make-your-own-pizza night, where everyone brings toppings to share or even host a classic potluck. Creating a space for conversation to flow is a magical achievement, and you simply never know what you may learn about your fellow peers if you don’t talk to them. One time, I met a guy who would put square sausages in the toaster. Gross…but at least I knew to never go for breakfast.
Amid the cost-of-living crisis, there are few better ways to get a group together affordably than a potluck dinner party. Cooking at home is exponentially cheaper than eating out, as long as you’re shopping in Aldi rather than Waitrose, and having each guest bring a dish of their own choosing to the function creates an unbeatable vibe. A budget of ~£5 per person can cover a spread fit for kings. Get creative, try something new – just ensure your chicken dish is actually cooked fully first, and don’t invite the guy who toasts his square sausage.
Having a warmly lit room full of friends, good food, shared drink, and rife conversation is a key step towards building a strong student community. At the end of the day, you need someone’s sofa to crash on when you miss the last Unilink home. You need a friend to explain to you that your references are a pile of rubbish. You need a group of people to fall back on when it all goes downhill – the least we can do is feed each other, laugh together, and keep each other’s shadows at bay.
Host a dinner party this semester, and see how many people you can bring together. You might well be surprised at the community you can build with a good roast chicken.
Featured image credit: Alice Pollard