And suddenly the semester is over. Suddenly you have to say goodbye to your dearest friends who you can’t imagine a life without anymore. Suddenly you have to leave your house, your classes, your professors…
By now you have probably guessed, I’m terrible at saying goodbye and allow any change in my life. I hate it. But because this is inevitable in life, especially being on exchange, I’m trying my best to cope with it. So far, I’ve come up with the following mechanisms:
1. Write, talk and sing it out
Nothing helps me better than getting those sad and uncomfortable thoughts out of my head. Because in there they get so much worse and dark. So, I write in my journal why I’m sad about saying goodbye to my friends. What I ’m going to miss from my room, classes, habits. Additionally, I talk to people about it. But I’m trying to be careful with that, because not everyone likes to hear those unconstructive and rather sad thoughts.
2. Write a list with things left to do
Unfortunately, because I hate change, I usually waste those last important days / weeks before the change actually happens. To work against that I started to write detailed lists with things I want to do before I have to leave / change happens. With those lists I know exactly who I want to meet once more for coffee, who I want to organize a gift for and what administrational thing I have to do. And if I’m lucky doing those things even makes me forget my sadness & fear of the upcoming event.
3. Do things!
This brings me to my next point. You might remember the last point from my first article on HerCampus How to fight homesickness where I said “just do something… It doesn’t matter what you do, it will distract your brain and going to make you feel better, I promise.” Same here. Go meet your friends, while you still have them around you! Enjoy the campus, the snow, do sports… the options are endless!
4. Be excited about what comes next!
Some people plan their next holidays the day they come home from their trips. Same here! Plan things you can do the next place you go. What is the weather like the place you go? Google things to do, places to eat, mountains to climb, books to read… I’m sure this will make you so much more excited about what comes next.
I hope those four tips will help you cope somehow with your fear of change. You got this! I believe in you!