We’ve all been there. Feeling that familiar ache to go back to a time when mom did your laundry and you had home-cooked meals every evening.
With a new semester starting, many girls, including myself, are struggling coming back to school after being a home for a month. Here are 5 tips and tricks to help you deal with homesickness and get back into the swing of being on your own:
1. Find a way to distract yourself
Find something to distract yourself from missing home too much. It’s definitely hard when you do things that you loved to do at home, so, do something new! Go to the rec center and get active or even just read a quality new book to keep your mind off of what you are missing at home!
2. Get involved
I know it sounds very cheesy, but it’s true! Getting involved with a campus activity can and will keep you entertained and busy. You will meet so many other students who are struggling with the same thing and soon enough, you will be so involved that you might even forget why you were homesick in the first place.
Photo credit: Brianna Johnson
3. Schedule a time every week to call or talk to your loved ones
This is one of my favorite tips on combating homesickness because it is extremely simple and easy to do. Every week, I call my parents and have a nice, long conversation with them. It definitely helps talking to your family about what you are sad and worried about and it gives you something to look forward to weekly. But, do make sure that you only do it once a week because doing it more can make you miss home even more!
4. Make a Countdown
This is one of those things that you would not expect to actually help you avoid homesickness. Counting down to breaks actually reverses homesickness because it gives you something to look forward to and it keeps you busy every day when you have to actually use your countdown.
5. Bring things from home to college
This is something that almost everyone talks about, because it really does help. I know that bringing small things from growing up, including pictures really does help remember the good times at home rather than missing home. But, make sure not to bring too much up with you, because that can actually reverse what you are trying to accomplish!
These are just some tips that can help girls combat something that so commonly happens on college campuses. But, so many people do have many tips on destroying homesickness for good. Talk to some other students on campus; you might be surprised at what you find.