You could be 30 mins by car or 24 hours by plane away from home. The feeling of homesickness is the same. You miss your friends, your mum, your dad. The advice from your clever older sister and the hugs from your grandma. But the new semester has started and with that your time away from home.
After the first weeks of excitement, meeting new and old friends, going to parties, events from the o-week, going to classes for the first time and getting to know your roommates you’re confronted with the reality of studying for quizzes/ exams and working on assignments, group projects and lab reports. Meeting your newfound friends is more difficult, because everyone has a different schedule. So here are 4 tips for you to fight your homesickness and enjoy your time here at the University of Guelph to the fullest!
1. Call your friends and family members not too often and not too less
It’s not that easy to figure out how often you should call your friends and family. When I arrived in Guelph I wanted to tell my friends and family members everything. How my apartment looks like, how my classes are, what friends I made etc. But I realized that after most of the calls I actually felt worse. I was sadder and more sentimental, I wished to be back home more. So, I called and texted my family and friends less, to the point where I nearly felt disconnected to them. The right amount of contact and calls is different for everybody, but my advice would be to figure out for yourself how often it’s healthy for you to call them, so you can actually enjoy the conversations. And also that’s okay when you not call them and tell them everything that happened here.
2. Join clubs
The best place to meet people with similar interest as you have, are clubs. And you’re in for a real treat, because the University of Guelph has over 200 clubs. So join at least one or two of them. There’s literally everything from the photography club, to the wildlife, the French club and endless more. Joining clubs will distract you from your homesickness and allow you to meet cool people, it’s a win-win-situation!
3. Do sports regularly
For your mental and physical health, it’s really important to stay active. Try out something completely new or join an activity you like a lot. How about wrestling or ice skating? Cycle yoga or Dragon boats. For me personally doing any kind of activity helps me a lot when I’m feeling sad and wish to be closer to my home. After swimming a few laps, I always feel better.
4. Build up new friendships
I know everyone already has some sort of good/ best friends somewhere in the world, but my advice for you is when you come here to truly build up new friendships. Try to meet people with an open mind, no stereotypes, no hesitation, no comparison with your friends from back home. It doesn’t matter if you stay here for only one semester or for the next four years of your life, you’ll need true friends. True friends to laugh, to cry, to explore and enjoy this experience. Use these first weeks to make an effort to build up new friendships, text people and show them you truly care about them.
The best and probably most important tip I can give to you is as simple as just do something. Because whatever you do, when you’re homesick and lay in your bed it’s not going to get better. Go out, explore the campus, explore the city, the nature, go camping, running, read a book, bake a cake. It doesn’t matter what you do, it will distract your brain and going to make you feel better, I promise.