Many university students experience distress about being separated from family and community. It becomes a critical problem in universities at present. Homesickness—defined as the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from home—carries the unique hallmark of preoccupying thoughts of home and attachment objects. Sufferers typically report depression and anxiety, withdrawn behavior, and difficulty focusing on topics unrelated to home. For domestic and international university students, intense homesickness is particularly problematic. (Walton, 2012) Homesickness is around new college students. Most of college students reflect that they have somehow homesickness when they entered the new college. It is hard to adjust them in a new environment far away from home.

Homesickness is a kind of emotional state that will affect students’ nerves, sleep, concentration, appetite and so forth. It is a real manifestation of feeling ill and anxious. It usually occurs when we are sad about being away from our family, siblings, or any environment in which we felt comforted and from which we have been separated. “Homesickness” is a normal part of college students’ development toward adulthood. Such feelings should be acknowledged and accepted, even when uncomfortable. When students are homesick, people might feel nostalgic for familiar things like family, friends, pets, house, or neighborhood. College students can miss something as simple as their bed or the tree outside their window. It could be an important problem. Not only will it distract students’ attention on study, but it also will make students upset and depressed, which may have a great impact on their campus life. As for me, I am an international student studying abroad in U.S. Before leaving my hometown, I heard a lot about homesickness. At that time, I felt that those students are too naïve and childish to have a homesickness as a college student. After arriving here, my attitude changed. Sometimes I will feel loneliness and helpless. I miss everything in my hometown—my family, food, my bedroom and so forth.  Homesickness is a quite significant problem for me. I can’t focus on my study any more. Furthermore, I was upset and felt hopelessly when I was alone. I found that homesickness, which should be really paid attention to, really had a great influence on my study and daily life.

After asking a few friends’ opinions, I confirmed that even though in the USA, some American-born students also have the same homesickness problem as international students.  Different students may have various extends of homesickness as well.  Fisher and Hood (1987) examined the relationship between homesickness and a number of demographic and personal characteristics of first year college students. Their findings showed that there were no sex differences in the reports of homesickness, and that homesickness is largely independent of age. Furthermore, their results indicated that those students who reported high levels of homesickness had a tendency to view their home environments in positive terms, suggesting that when they had positive experiences in the past, it made it harder for them to leave their homes behind. Finally, their results indicated that homesick individuals had greater psychological disturbances particularly manifest in raised scores, somatic symptoms reporting, and depression. (Urani, 2003) Homesickness is around the campus. Sometimes, we just didn’t pay attention to it.

How could we solve this problem? Well, it takes time to get used to a new environment.  It is not easy to get rid of it. The first step in overcoming homesickness is realizing that there isn’t anything wrong with you. According to Dr. Klapow, “even if no one’s saying anything, chances are most people are feeling [varying degrees] of homesickness at one point or another. Feeling homesick is part of learning to live a new life—you can’t do it without going through some sort of adjustment period.” (Thurber,2006 ) Acknowledging and accepting your homesickness is a way of learning how to live a new life, from starting college all the way to moving to a new city for a job. Once you know you’re homesick, you can start working towards getting over it. Calling home may sound like common sense, but it can really help. The key factor, however, is not to call home all of the time. Don’t call more than once a day, and keep the conversation positive. But if students miss friends, family or relatives, giving them a call can sometimes help ease the heartache.  Don’t be shameful to let other people know that you have homesickness. Face up to the homesickness and try to have a better mood to study and live.

Another possible partial solution to the homesickness would be go out of the room to hang out with college friends. It’s incredibly easy to hide in your room in college. But doing so prevents you from meeting new people, trying new things, and experiencing college life in general. Most of students are in the same boat as you. You didn’t go to school to hide in your room, right? Make sure to spend large chunks of your time out of your room — even if it’s just at a campus coffee shop, the quad, or the library — and get your mind on other things. You never know what might happen, but you do know that it won’t happen if you’re alone in your room all the time. Sometimes, a night out with your college friends can do wonders for homesickness. It can take your mind off of things back home, can help you relax and have a good time, and can reinforce relationships that will make your school feel like home sometime soon. (Stroebe, 2002 ) Moreover, it not only helps to ease the homesickness, but it also improves the social skills on campus, which may be useful after graduation as well. In fact, it does work to solve my homesickness in America. If I have something interesting to do, I will concentrate on these interesting things instead of missing home and everything about the hometown.

I believe that these two solutions above may help a lot to reduce the homesickness.  Sometimes, knowing these two points make us to shift attention on homesickness. There is nothing shameful to suffer the homesickness. As for college students, these two solutions are very effective and practical.  Psychologists suggest spending time away from home as a way to build up tolerance to homesickness. Although we can’t get rid of the homesickness thoroughly, we can try to reduce  the homesickness at college and minimize the influence made by the homesickness. Of course, there are many ways to reduce the homesickness. I thought these solutions are better and more health to college students.

This is a clip that explain how to deal with homesickness at college

As for me, I thought it helps a lot when I feel hopeless and boring in my dorm. I would try to find some friends to hang out with them, talk and find something interesting to do, which may distract my attraction on my homesickness. Instead of missing home, I kept myself busy as bee. Involving in different activities gave me a good mood to focus on my study.  I hope that this article and myself experience can help you to ease your homesickness. No matter what happened, we should be brave enough to overcome difficulties in our lives.

In conclusion, homesickness is a popular problem at college now. I hope that students who are suffering the homesickness can put these suggestions into practice. What’s more, I expect that more and more university students can  get rid of the homesickness and have a colorful campus life at college.

 

Reference

Thurber, C. A., & Walton, E. A. (2012). Homesickness and Adjustment in University Students. Journal Of American College Health, 60(5), 415-419.

Urani, M. A., Miller, S. A., Johnson, J. E., & Petzel, T. P. (2003). HOMESICKNESS IN SOCIALLY ANXIOUS FIRST YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS. College Student Journal, 37(3), 392

Stroebe, M., van Vliet, T., Hewstone, M., & Willis, H. (2002). Homesickness among students in two cultures: Antecedents and consequences. British Journal Of Psychology, 93(2), 147.

Thurber, C. (2006). Essentials of Homesickness Prevention Dramatic Reductions in Homesickness Intensity Depend on What You Do Before Opening Day. Camping Magazine, 79(3), 1.