Pressure Cooker: How Hostel Life Can Shape a 100L Student’s Experience
Looking through my e-diary recently, I realized how much I have grown. As I reflected on the past, I became deeply grateful that God helped me rise above the pressures that come with hostel life. When I walked into the hostel for the first time, I was not just carrying a bag filled with clothes, documents, and provisions. I was carrying my fears, my hopes, and everything I had ever been told about university life. They say the university is a place of learning, but what they often leave out is that it is also a place of unlearning, relearning, and becoming, especially when you live in the hostel.
In 100 level, hostel life felt like a silent war. It was not just a battle for survival; it was a battle for identity. I walked in with my small purple box, my small Vivo phone, and my mother’s voice echoing in my head: “Don’t forget whose child you are.”
📖 “Bad company corrupts good character.” — 1 Corinthians 15:33
Hostel life for a 100-level student is a whirlwind of newness. New faces, new rules, new temptations, and most dangerously, new freedoms. The hostel is not just a building. It is a testing ground, a pressure cooker.
You are thrown into a room with people from different tribes, backgrounds, and beliefs; people raised with different values and driven by different desires. Some know who they are, others are still figuring it out. And some, they will try to make you question everything you believe.
📖 “Enter through the narrow gate… for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction.” — Matthew 7:13
Everyone knows what peer pressure means, but here is a truth we do not talk about enough: peer pressure is not always loud, sometimes, it is the silence that screams the most.
It is in watching others live recklessly and wondering, “Am I too uptight?”
It is in the laughter when you pray before eating.
It is in the rolled eyes when you decline a night-party invite.
It is in being called “church girl/boy”, “old school,”, “mummy’s boy” or “daddy’s girl”.
📖 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world…” — Romans 12:2
I met girls who came in burning with fire for God but left with ashes. Girls who once swore they would wait till marriage, are now whispering about hookups. A neighbor of mine, a fellow freshman came back traumatized after narrowly escaping a gang-rape attempt at a party meant for new students. I thought she had learned her lesson, but days later, videos of her smoking and doing hard drugs in a club surfaced online. One afternoon, she broke down and told me not to envy her, that she wished she were more like me.
Another story: a friend narrated how a medical student bought a girl meat pie and ice cream, only to send a voice note hours later asking her to meet him “somewhere private to have fun.”
Fun? Maybe I need to research the meaning of fun.
But I also saw courage.
There was a girl in Wing C who never missed her morning devotion. People mocked her at first. Slowly, they began joining her. She did not preach loudly, but her consistency preached louder than any sermon. That day, I learned something: if light does not shine in darkness, darkness becomes the norm.
That is why boundaries are not just rules, they are fences around your destiny.
📖 “Above all else, guard your heart…” — Proverbs 4:23
📖 “Let your light shine before others…” — Matthew 5:16
Then came the pressure of trends. The 30-inch wigs. The obsession with iPhones. TikTok challenges. Slay culture. If you were not “serving looks,” you were “just there.”
Myles Munroe once said: “When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable.” And many girls in the hostel live without purpose. They follow trends because they do not know the worth of their calling. But when you know who you are in Christ, you refuse to settle for crumbs.
📖 “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” — 1 Timothy 6:6
📖 “Better a little with the fear of the Lord…” — Proverbs 15:16
🎙️ Joyce Meyer said, “You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”
I learned that too. I had to stop comparing my behind-the-scenes to another person’s highlight reel. I also learned that purity has become rebellion in today’s world. When you say no to sexual immorality and guard your body as God’s temple, people act like you are strange.
📖 “Flee from sexual immorality… your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” — 1 Corinthians 6:18–19
Hostel life will make you question yourself:
“Am I being too rigid?”
“Am I missing out?”
“Should I just try it once?”
But that is the devil’s oldest trick making sin look sweet “just once.”
📖 “There is a way that seems right… but in the end it leads to death.” — Proverbs 14:12
By the end of 100 level, I was not the same girl who walked in with braided hair and big dreams. I had scars, yes. But I also had strength, I had depth, I had grown.
I had become.
Having lived in the hostel and successfully come out unstained, a few of these tips would aid your survival as one who is just entering the system;
- Do not compromise your values for vibes.
- Set boundaries early and stick to them.
- Protect your peace, it is your spiritual currency.
- Not everyone is your friend; be friendly but discerning.
- Stay anchored in God’s Word; let Romans 12:2 be your compass.
- Pray before you sleep—even if it’s a whisper.
- Forgive quickly. Gossip less. Love more.
- Shine your light—even when it’s unpopular.
📖 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…” — Isaiah 43:2
🎙️ “Don’t be afraid to stand out for what is right…” — Evangelist Funke Felix-Adejumo
To Every 100-Level Brother and Sister Reading This… If you are walking into that hostel feeling like a stranger in a strange land, hear me:
You are not weird for choosing differently.
You are not boring for standing out.
You are not old-school for keeping your body and your heart.
You are wise. Brave. Becoming.
And even in that pressure cooker, with God’s grace, you will not only survive—you will rise.
📖 “Be strong and courageous… the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” — Joshua 1:9
📖 “Blessed is the one who endures temptation…” — James 1:12
You, precious one, are not alone.
You are becoming.
NB: Except otherwise stated, all images are from Google Images
