Nobody talks enough about hostel hunger.

Not because it’s rare, but because almost everybody who experienced it tries to laugh about it later instead of admitting how hard it actually was.

Hostel hunger is different from normal hunger.

It’s checking your account balance repeatedly like money might magically appear.

It’s drinking water first before eating so your stomach can feel temporarily deceived.

It’s hearing your roommate unwrap food at midnight and pretending you’re not awake because embarrassment is also sitting beside you on the bed.

Some nights in the hostel felt endless.

Especially near month-end when everybody suddenly became financially creative. One person was owing the food vendor downstairs. Another was surviving on garri and groundnut. Somebody else kept saying “I already ate outside” when everybody knew they hadn’t eaten anything.

Yet somehow, everybody kept moving.

That’s the strange thing about hostel life. Struggle becomes normal so quickly that suffering starts sounding like comedy.

You’ll hear conversations like:

“Guy, na only biscuit I chop today.”

And everybody laughs.

But behind those jokes were real situations.

Missed meals. Anxiety. Pressure from school. Calls from home asking, “How are you managing?” when you know things are not okay.

Sometimes the hardest part wasn’t even the hunger itself.

It was pretending you were fine.

Pretending you weren’t worried about school fees. Pretending you weren’t tired. Pretending you weren’t mentally exhausted from constantly calculating survival.

But hostel hunger also created a strange kind of brotherhood and sisterhood.

People shared food without measuring portions. One plate of rice could suddenly feed four people. Someone’s mother would send provisions from home and the entire room would celebrate like it was Christmas.

Those moments taught many of us compassion before adulthood fully arrived.

Because once you’ve experienced lack closely, you understand people differently.

You become softer. More grateful. Less wasteful.

And even years later, some habits never leave.

Like valuing free food too much. Like storing snacks unnecessarily. Like feeling proud whenever your kitchen is full.

Nobody talks about hostel hunger because it sounds small compared to bigger life problems.

But for many young people, it was the first real encounter with survival.

And honestly, it changed us more than we admit.