Staying Positive, Combating Homesickness

Homesick1Being away from home for prolonged periods of time can be difficult; moving away from everything you know makes you feel less secure and comfortable in your surroundings. You long to see your friends, family, pets or just anything that seems familiar. This longing feeling is better known as homesickness.

Some people are more affected by homesickness than others. From freshmen to seniors, many people feel homesick at some point while at college. Instead of sitting around and wallowing in sadness, there are a few simple things you can do to help combat homesickness.

Keep busy and get involved

The times when you’re sitting around with nothing to do are usually the times you start to think about how much you’re missing home. Keep yourself busy, not necessarily with homework, but doing things like watching your favorite television shows and getting involved with campus life. Joining clubs and societies will also allow you to make new friends, which will make campus feel more like home.

Stay positive

Whether you’re 200 or 10,000 miles away from home, it’s easy to let homesickness get you down. On a huge campus, it’s certain that you’re not the only one feeling this way. Try to think positively: the semester really isn’t that long, and once it’s over you get a long break to spend at home.  If you’re lucky enough to have the chance to visit home once or twice a semester, separate your visits so that you’re not visiting home a week before the semester ends.

Communicate with friends and family back home often

Make sure you’re keeping in touch with the people you’re missing. Take some time out and utilize technologies like Skype, FaceTime, Facebook or plain old email. Skype and FaceTime are good if you like to video-call or voice chat, or if you just want a quick conversation you can go for text-based mediums like email. Even emailing the person you’re missing twice a week, and Skyping on a weekly or biweekly basis makes a huge difference.

Photo by Sam Florio 

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