How to combat homesickness

When I was younger, I always imagined that I would be the kind of person who would go to college close to home, cry when I got dropped off, and visit my parents often.  This all sort of changed some time last year.

I'm not sure why, but when I got accepted to my state's university (in the Midwest) and a university on the East Coast, I just really wanted to get away from all of the people and places that I knew here and go on an adventure.  You know, meet new people, discover new places...  I don't know what came over me, but I knew that if I stayed in-state, I would fall back and rely on my friends from high school; I wouldn't meet anyone new.

So in addition the school's reputation and its beautiful campus, this longing for somewhere new played a big part in my decision to enroll at the East Coast school.  What does this all have to do with homesickness, you ask?  I think that this adventure-seeking side of me is what kept me from getting homesick.  Or it might have been that the adventures that I sought left me no time to feel homesick.  Either way, here are some things that I did the first couple weeks of school that I think definitely helped me adjust to my new home.


1.  Make new friends -- go on adventures together!

New friends can help distract you enough so that you don't have time to feel homesick.  It's cool if these people don't become your best friends, or even if you never talk to them again after orientation week.  Meet some new people, talk to them, and have lunch with them or something.  The adventures that you have with them don't have to be anything big:  movie marathons, exploring the campus -- heck, one of my friends even called our first Target run an "adventure."  Just make sure you're doing something that doesn't involve sitting in your dorm room thinking about how much you miss home.


2.  Keep in touch with friends from back home.

I think a big part of homesickness is not so much missing the house where you used to live, but rather missing the people who were around you.  While it's important to meet new people in new places like college, talking to old friends helps a lot, and Skype and Facebook make this so easy.  Talking to old friends reminds you that someone misses you, too, and you'll be able to talk about things that you wouldn't be able to talk about with your new friends (such as, your new friends).


3.  Talk to your parents.

Because let's face it:  if you're close to your parents at all, talking and complaining to them makes any depressing situation better.  However, while it's not up to me to tell you how often to call your parents, I recommend not calling them every day.  Even if you miss them a bunch and you know they miss you, both you and they are going to have to get used to the fact that you're basically a grown-up now, and you can't rely on your parents for everything.  Besides, you should be too busy adventuring.