Going off to college is an incredibly fun and exciting experience for any young adult. I remember that in the flood of excitement, fear, and anxiety last year, another feeling snuck in that caught me by surprise: homesickness.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be homesick. I expected to miss my friends and my dog, but the intensity and pervasiveness of it took me by surprise. I’m happier and more independent than I’ve ever been before, but still, the thought of home seems more appealing than ever. Never did I think somebody could miss a smell so much, but here I am missing, practically yearning, for a smell that I associate with no place other in the world besides my home and no people besides my family. I’ve now learned that homesickness is something to expect with being away. If anything, it’s a good thing! Being homesick means that you’re sick with how much you miss the people, places, and things that you love. Never will I ever see that love and loving is a bad thing, as love is an amazing aspect of the human experience that is such a gift.Â
I now know that occasional homesickness is an inevitability; no rationalizations or denials can change this for me. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways of dealing with it; instead of ignoring homesickness and letting the emotions grow and fester until they can overwhelm you, you should combat it by embracing it in a way. I do this by incorporating my home life into my college world. This can feel strange and frustrating, as nothing is home besides home. But truly bringing home with you, wherever you go, is so important. Being in college is already a very isolating experience, and by denying your home life, you just isolate yourself more.
Home is often in the little things. The songs you played that one summer, the houses you pass every day without thinking about, and your family’s laughs that you hear in the backdrop of your life. All of these things are small and often go unnoticed, but together they come together to make the place you call home. That is why, when combating homesickness, the little things make all the difference. For example, I have pictures that remind me of home: friends, family, my dog, even trees lining my dorm, and the little scrapbook I have on my desk. My grandmothers necklace that I carry with me in every step, the poster my brother got me, and the little piggy bank I painted with my friends are all small ways I surround my world with my home.
Love doesn’t go away even if you’re not physically there. That is why the most important step in incorporating your home life with your college one, is continuing to nurture the love you have at home. Call your family, text your friends, and check in with any other loved ones. Nothing makes me feel more grounded when I’m overwhelmed with college life than a call with someone I love and care for. Truly, a call with my mom or my friends could be labeled medicinal in the way it heals me in a way.
Something I never really considered with homesickness until I experienced it is how heavily nostalgia is tied up with it. In many ways, the home I’m yearning for doesn’t exist anymore. That may be a morbid thought, but it’s true. While I’ve been here growing and evolving, my life back home has changed too, just without me there to witness it. As fall, winter, and spring passed by without my eyes to behold, life cycled where I once had been. Now coming back, I can not pretend that the world’s the same because it’s not. Businesses have closed, some people have changed forever, and my own family has grown and shrunk forever. What I picture as home has changed too, quick remarks, and small references to my college as home have ordained it my kinda home. It’s not a steady, or forever home, but it’s my now world.Â
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