Homesickness Has No Boundaries
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Homesickness Has No Boundaries

It's only a natural part of the study abroad experience.

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Homesickness Has No Boundaries
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I suppose that homesickness is unavoidable for every college student at some point in their academic career. It doesn't matter if you live 20 minutes away from campus or 200 miles, eventually the homesickness hits. You're forced to power through your lectures and 1,000-word essays even though all you feel like doing is crawling into your bed (that is not a twin extra long) and snuggling up with your dog. (And if you don't have a dog, maybe it's your cat, or your hamster, or your bearded dragon, whatever you prefer.)

Unfortunately, homesickness remains active even when you're abroad in a country that you've dreamed of studying in for most of your life. Homesickness hits even when you are living with a host family of people that have done nothing but show you every kindness from inviting you to go to the movies to accompany you to the hospital for hours on end when you were sick with the flu. Homesickness even hits when you come back from seeing "Liga de Justicia" at 1:00 a.m. and it reminds you of going to the movies with your family or your significant other back home.

Homesickness doesn't always manifest as sadness, although there have been days when even the most benign Bruce Springsteen reference reminds me of my dad and I feel hot tears pressing against my eyes. Homesickness can be irritability when you come back from having 6 straight hours of class and your roommate looks at you the "wrong" way and suddenly you long for your own bedroom. You long for your best friends back at your school who you can tell anything and everything too. You long for the clubs and activities that you participate in at your home university when even on your worst days learning some new choreography with the other members of your school's dance club could turn your frown upside down. You crave a bit of companionship.

Of course, you're still grateful for the chance to study abroad at all, realizing that many have not been afforded the same opportunity, either due to the rigid requirements of their own major or a lack of funds. (And keeping this in mind, you silently thank your home university for the affordability of their study abroad programs.) Not only have you been able to explore your host country, but thanks to a close proximity and convenient cheap flights, you've also gotten the chance to visit other countries and cities. But even these once in a lifetime experience can't completely eliminate the homesickness when it hits.

So what can you do? Well, you take care of yourself. If you need to take some time for yourself to just huddle underneath your blanket and shed a few tears with some Haribo and Netflix, do it. If you need to take a walk and just get out of your room for a bit, even if it's just for 10 minutes, do it. Skype home and maybe even ask to say hi to your dog if you're missing your family. Homesickness isn't a sign of weakness, rather, it is a natural part of your experience.

You can still be appreciative of the opportunities you've been afforded thus far and still give in to a certain yearning for familiarity. Homesickness sucks, but it doesn't last forever and it will by no means tarnish your experience. Just remember that you've already made it this far and this too shall pass soon enough.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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