By Peyton Gigante
Finals are hard. This is no secret – your stressed, everyone around you is stressed, and going home is right around the corner.
I never used to get super excited about going home, however this year, I can’t wait. The itch to get out of Oxford, get back to my family, start working, and see my friends from home is real.
I am constantly worried that me being homesick means that I don’t love my school. I am the biggest Miami freak – I love this school and I have loved it since I first set foot on this campus my sophomore year of high school.
So, if I love it so much, why am I so homesick?
I think that it’s easy in college to look at being homesick as a bad thing. Typically associated with the first couple weeks or months of your freshman year, getting over your original homesickness is like a gift sent from God. It means that your finally comfortable in college, being away from home, and that your finally set in this brand-new environment.
Freshman year I literally had to be forced to move out – I was not ready to leave Miami, Brandon Hall, or my best friends. However, this year, my sophomore year, I’ve been ready to go since J-Term.
To be honest, I’m really embarrassed about it.
I love college and thrive at Miami, but I am dying to go home – and that’s totally okay. The stigma of being homesick and thus “hating” college is totally false, and it needs to go away. It’s okay to love going home and being around your family and friends. It’s okay to want to have your own space and make money. And, it’s totally and utterly acceptable to want to go home just to see your dogs. ;)
I’ve had to have countless talks with my parents, my friends, and myself to know that being homesick as a sophomore is completely normal and it doesn’t mean you hate college. Though it sucks to want to go home, it doesn’t make you weird and it shouldn’t hinder your experience. You should surround yourself with people who lift you up, make you a better person, make you laugh, and make you a better version of yourself – when you do this, a little bit of that homesickness does chip away.
Do little things in your day to make you happy and do things for yourself. Buy a coffee, read a book, binge watch Game of Thrones, and write too much in a planner. Take a nap, sit in the sun, and hang out with your friends. Whatever you do, make sure it’s for you. Make the most out of your time so that you’re no longer dwelling on how badly you wish you were home.
Lastly, know that it’s okay that you might be homesick and know that it’s totally normal. A lot of people are homesick whether they talk about it or not, so you’re 100% not alone.