LIBBY Powell, 18, is a founding member of the Chalford Cubed Youth Forum, she still dials in to meetings from De Montfort university in Leicester, this is her first article for the SNJ.

September across the country marks a time when many children fly the nest off to university, not only is this transition itself a big change but as many will notice there are very few universities located in villages, so for village children this can be a major shock to the system.

Some of biggest changes noted are the simply things like noise levels. It is a big change when one is used to waking up on a morning to hear the birds and now one wakes up to hear football hooligans and police cars, not mention the traffic.

The fact you have to use pavements whilst at university whereas for many back at home in a rural village pavements are there some of the time and not necessarily a necessity, now cars whizz past at all speeds with no signs of cows.

The lack of wildlife also becomes apparent with this transition, before the move wildlife can often be taken for granted but it’s when you are far from home watching yet another fire engine fly past you really miss seeing the donkeys in the fields.

The transition is not all bad as now many find they can actually walk to the nearest supermarket or even shopping mall which as a rural village child, one can only dream off and nightclubs being within walking distance, no more reliance on Mum’s Taxi service.

The best thing about moving to a city from a village is not but the cultural explosion one undergoes with every type of cuisine around and people dying to hear your accent but the independence you gain, it doesn’t matter where you go to university or whether you at its flying the nest to a place where the world is at one’s foot and anything is possible.