Everyone always says "it will get better after your freshman year," or "you'll never want to go home once you get used to it." For someone like me, these statements are entirely not true. They will tell you to stop going home because it just makes it worse or that you need to get used to living on your own. Regardless of how many times people tell me that it will go away, I'm still homesick. It's not so much that I miss my house, but more so I miss my family, my friends, and not having to use my GPS every time I want to go somewhere.

For the majority of my life I was a homebody. I didn't spend the night at friend's houses until middle school and I preferred to be home more than the average kid my age. In high school I got a lot more confident and social and to everyone's surprise, I decided to go away for college. I knew that it was going to be a difficult adjustment, but it was a challenge that I knew would be good for me in the long run.

For some people going home frequently might make the homesickness worse, but for me, it makes it better. More often that not, going home is the refresher that I need to get through a few more weeks at school. It also calms me down to know that my dogs won't forget me if I see them at least once a month.

I know that I am not the only one who suffers from homesickness in college. I will never understand those people who can go months without going home because that seems unbearable to me. Luckily, I have learned how to cope with it so I don't end up going home every single weekend.

The first thing that I found to be the most helpful was knowing that homesickness is just a lack of familiarity. Once you adapt to your new living environment and adjust to a schedule, it does get easier. I look forward to the breaks or weekends that I am able to go home. Rather than spending my time being homesick, I can be excited for the next time that I get to go home instead.

Keeping yourself busy and having a good group of friends to hang out with is helpful as well. It's easy to get homesick if you just lay around all day and wallow in your self pity. When I get homesick, I either engulf myself in schoolwork or force my roommates to watch a movie with me.

While homesickness never necessarily goes away for some of us, it does get better. I still get sad every time I leave home, but once I get back into my schedule at school, I'm fine. It takes patience and lots of phone calls to your mom wanting to come home, but in the long run, it will all work out if you just give it a chance.