I have lived away from home since I was 14. I went to boarding school and now college, so living hours away from New Jersey is second nature. When I decided to study abroad for my junior year, I didn’t expect to get homesick. While I do miss my home in NJ, I didn’t realize how much I would miss another place, Dickinson.
When I chose to go to Dickinson, it was kind of on a whim. It was getting close to May 1st and I was stressed about picking a college, so Dickinson just kind of happened. When I arrived freshman year, I had only visited campus twice before. What I didn’t know then was how much I would grow to love that tiny campus in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
There are a lot differences between my university here in England, the University of East Anglia, and Dickinson. For starters, my classes here are huge, with my biggest class around 60. To put it in perspective, last semester at Dickinson, I had a class of six people. They also don’t have a cafeteria, so I have to cook for myself. And I can’t replicate the caf’s chicken parm. While I am slowly getting used to these things, there is something at Dickinson that I can’t replicate here: my friends.
I think the reason why I miss Dickinson so much is because of my friends. Right now, my friends and I are all scattered around the world. I have friends in Italy, France, Australia, and it’s a change from last year when we lived 5 minutes away from each other. I miss being able to grab lunch with them or go on random trips to Walmart or watch Are You The One together. I miss spending quality time with the people I love. But luckily, there’s Skype and Facebook Messenger. So while I do miss Dickinson and my friends, I know that senior year, I will appreciate our time together even more.