I'm sorry that I'm not spending my waking hours worrying about what people at home are doing or when the next time I can go home is.

I've always thought of myself as a pretty independent person. Even at home in Indiana I never really relied on the people around me. Don't get me wrong I cried when I realized I had to say goodbye to my family and the few friends I have. But as weird as it seems I'm actually okay being 886 miles away from home.

I haven't been spending my days really thinking about what's going on at home, which has probably helped. I still talk to my parents but I'm not sitting around waiting for them to call me.

I found that placing yourself not only physically but mentally where you are is a good practice. Focusing on the new friends I've made here and what I'm doing in classes, or even planning my weekends with friends has helped to acclimate me better.

I purposely chose a school that wasn't anywhere near my hometown to experience life and detaches from the mundane life I knew. It irks me, the fact that some people try to push their homesickness on me. Yes, I do miss certain aspects of life at home but I'm not yearning to be back home, because while my family is still there, there is nothing really left for me in Munster. I've finished high school and moved to a new chapter in my life.

I think you can miss home but still be okay and not feel the actual pressures of being homesick. I know they say to give it a few months and by November you'll feel homesick.

But, you're not a psychopath if you don't miss home. It just means your ready to be independent and on your own.

Why is it seemingly an ungraspable concept that I can be having fun here and not really missing home?

The fact that being here is a fresh start and a new beginning has really helped me. Any shit from my life in Indiana cannot follow me here unless I let it in.

I've made more genuine friends here in three weeks than I did in the whole 18 years I spent in Indiana. There has been a weight lifted off my shoulders knowing that coming here no one has any predispositions about me.