How to Not be Homesick

The day eventually comes when it’s time that you leave your mother’s nest, you stretch your wings and you fly away from home to live your own life. But you can’t help but miss home. It’s natural and happens to everyone. However, it can affect some people more than others, so if you’re struggling with it, here are some ideas that might help cure your homesickness.

Call Home Frequently

This one might be a bit obvious, but it’s really important that you set aside some time (how often depends on the person and the situation) to chat with your family. It might be a phone call, using Skype, going back for a weekend or a holiday, or even just a quick email; just whatever works for you. Ask about how your family are, how the pets are doing, and keep up to date with what’s happening so you don’t feel left out.

Get Lost in Work

If you’re at college or university, this one should be pretty easy to do, but you can still do this in other situations. If you focus on doing your work (either your job or assessments and studying), then you’ll spend less time thinking about home and shouldn’t be as homesick.

Memoirs

Bring these with you when you leave, or do them when you’re gone. It might be something simple like a family photo to look at, or maybe you can make your mother’s favourite recipe. Perhaps your family has a favourite movie that you can watch in your new home and it will help your sickness. Sometimes reminders of the past will help you instead of making the situation worse.

Friends

These guys are super important. Spend more time with them and they can be distracting from your homesickness, or supportive of you. Either way, they’ll make the situation better, and might even make your new home more fun and better than the old home that you miss.

Talk to People

If you’re really struggling, then reach out to someone. It could be a friend from the above tip, or it might be your family or even professional help. Colleges and schools should have a support system in place so you can confide in someone, and letting it all out is sure to make you feel better.

Ignoring

This strategy is a bit different to the others, but might be the best for you. If you purposefully push all the thoughts to the back of your mind and really force yourself to not think about home, then you won’t miss it as much. I personally find this one too hard to do, as lots of things remind me of my home, but if you think it might work then go for it.

Make Your New House a Home

Yes, there is a difference between “house” and “home”, and it’s very important that you are living in a home if you easily get homesick. Ensure that your new house feels like your old home, whether that be by simply hanging up a few posters or adding some of your favourite decorations. Make it somewhere that you want to live, somewhere that you feel comfortable in, and you’ll soon find that you adjust to your new home.

Stay Positive

Look forward to something, like an event in the near future. Get excited about an outing with your friends on Saturday night, or going to your favourite band’s concert. Even if no other tips are working and you still feel horrible and homesick, then start counting down the days until you go back home. Just think that you’ll be back before you know it, and you truly will be.

Obviously, there is no guarantee that any of these methods will work, but they are worth a try. Homesickness is completely normal, but it is really good if you can minimise the distress it can cause. Good luck at feeling comfortable in your new home!