How to Be Ok with Missing Home

I’ve always been someone who could understand homesickness in theory. I was born in Philadelphia and lived away from home for two summers at a camp while a teenager. While many people were preoccupied with home, I thrived. While my undergrad was relatively close (4 hours driving away), I spent a few months studying abroad. Again, I thrived and even though I could have talked to my family I barely ever did. I never experienced homesickness until I was relatively close to home in the big apple working an internship. I expected the newness to be amazing, but the novelty quickly ran out. I started to feel resentful about being where I was, which made my experience even worse. It was embarrassing to admit I was homesick for the first time. Adults aren’t supposed to get sad that things are going on back home and you’re stuck here.

It’s necessary to realize though, that you don’t necessarily hate this new city; you may just miss what life was. Learning this difference is important in taking steps to dealing with where you are. You may not be feeling the love and security you did at home, and so you begin to miss it. According to research by Chris Thurber, the best way to combat being homesick isn’t to resist it, it’s to work through it. He says “Treating homesickness involves normalizing homesickness, coaching young people on effective ways to cope, working on building new social connections, helping them keep some perspective on the duration of the separation, and involving them with the new environment in meaningful ways that enhance their commitment to it” in his publication from American Academy of Pediatrics. Like a flu, it’s the perfect to use to inoculate against itself with. One just has to realize that.