Homesickness is no joke. According to Webster's Dictionary homesickness is longing for home and family while absent from them. When you leave home for college, a new job opportunity, one of the various branches of the military, to explore the world, or for any other reason you have left home at some point you are almost guaranteed to feel homesick.
At first being away from home is exciting. You're being life as an adult. You're on your own. No curfew, no more rules set by parents, no more siblings it's a whole new world. However after classes begin, stress settles in, you get sick for the first time, or you miss something you've always been home for, is when the homesickness first begins. You call home a little extra, snuggle the blankets that smell like home, and if you're close enough you might just go home for the night.
Being homesick is hard. You already have a lot on your plate no matter how near or far away you are, and you can't always drop what you're doing to go back home. So the best ways I've found to cope with homesickness is first to try and make your room feel like home. Put of pictures with your family and friends, bring a couple of your favorite books and put them on your desk, buy the same fabric softener that your mom does to wash your clothes, and call home shamelessly whenever you feel the need. Because as homesick as you are, there are other people at home who are missing you just as much if not more than you miss them.
When you leave home, you leave your heart. Your family, your friends are off doing their own thing and it's difficult to be away from everything that you are familiar with. The food is different and the people are even more different. You must become dependent on yourself and motivate yourself to do your homework, go to classes, get a job, go to the gym. It can become to much to bear at times when you've always had people looking out for you and motivating you to be your best.
Whenever you feel sad and miss home, call home. Or talk to other people in your new friend group about home because they might be having some of those feelings too. Always know that you're not alone feeling homesick, and it's completely home. Before you know it the place that makes you feel homesick will become the place you call home.
