Homesickness

It is an odd thing, that sometimes the place I miss home the most is when I'm sat right at home in my house.

Going away, even if it is to a place where you ultimately want to be, can still be daunting. Whether your life at home has been happy or not, home is where you have grown up, it's where you are accepted for being you and you are loved unconditionally. Everything is familiar,  you know the rhythm of the days and what to expect when you wake up in the warmth and cosiness of your own room.

I'm leaving home to go back for my second year at university next week. Even second year is hard, so those heading off for freshers in the coming weeks don't worry - you are definitely not alone, and although leaving everything behind is easier second time round, it's still definitely a tug on the old heart strings.

From my experience, the week before leaving is actually the most trying time. You are surrounded by everything you are going to be deprived of for the foreseeable future, and where you are heading to is still unknown and slightly scary. At home you have nothing to distract yourself with apart from the things you know you are going to be missing, but, when at your destination (whether that be university or not) everything is new and exciting and life is distracting in itself! Reminders of home might bring on homesick moments, but these quickly pass if you are engaged in living your new life; a life full of things you cannot complexly comprehend when sat at home worrying about what you might be letting yourself in for!

My advice for any fresher would be to take a good long look at the freshers timetable that most university's publish and pick out lots of things to take yourself too. I made my own timetable of things I thought looked fun, making sure I had something to go and do in the morning, afternoon and evening each day of freshers, and although I didn't end up doing everything because of spontaneous outings with my flatmates and finding that actually I wasn't going to breakdown if I just chilled in my room for a bit, knowing that I had something to do made feel 100% better. Also planning when your first trip home is going to be (remember you can go back!) was comforting for me. I hit 3 weeks before I headed home for the weekend - I remember noting most people in my subject also made a trip back that weekend; other people have people and places they are missing too!

University is a challenging and exciting time, but it's ok to feel like its not like that at first.  I was prepared to feel horribly homesick for the fist month but it just doesn't work out like that for most people. In fact between Skype, FaceTime, texts and phone calls, keeping in touch can be almost as easy as when you are living at home, and the rest of the time your life is so busy and full that time flies and its the holidays before you know it!