STUDENT ADVICE: Dealing with Homesickenss

Hi!

During my time at university I have struggled with homesickness A LOT! This is not really the side of being a student you hear about much so most people end up going to university with the idea that is it all happy times. I made a YouTube video the other day about it and how it is totally normal, which you can watch here:

In this post I want to tell you about some of the methods I have used to combat home sickness myself in the hope that you will also find them useful:

1. DO THINGS - When you are feeling down it is very easy to just sit in your room and feel sorry for you self but that is not going to make you feel any better. By going into the outside world, perhaps meeting up with some friends, it will help you forget about missing home and perhaps make you enjoy your time at University a bit more. Strangely, I always find food shopping good because it calms me down and gets me out into the world.                                                                                                                                                                   
2. PHONE HOME - When I say phone home I don't mean spend all day on the phone to your mum or your friend. What I mean is perhaps phone them once a day (or twice if it is really bad) and they can encourage you and make you feel better.Talking to someone familiar whilst being at University will make you realise you are not completely alone in this place, there is always someone at the end of a phone.                                                                                                                                                                          
3. VISIT HOME - Again this is something to do in moderation but if you are feeling really down, go home for a weekend, not long enough to get settled there again but long enough to spend time with family/friends. In my first term I visited relatives every other week so that I would also have time to get used to being at university and now I only visit them a couple of times a term. It calms you down enough to be ready for a new start the next week but make sure you don't go home too often or you will never get comfortable in your new place. Also if you are really struggling, schedule it so you can look at the calender and see that in say 8 days time you are going home again.                                                                                                                                                                  
4. JOIN CLUBS - All universities have clubs and the bigger the university the more they have, so find a club that interests you and join it. You will find like minded people and get to do something you enjoy which will distract you from missing home and make university more enjoyable.                                                                                                                  
5. TALK TO PEOPLE - You will be surprised how many people feel exactly the same as you. So many of my friends felt exactly the same as I did and I found by talking to them I didn't feel as odd because I realised it was normal. I also spoke to my cousin who felt the same way as me about university while she was there and she helped me get through my first year. She made me realise that if see could finish her degree feeling like this so could I!

I hope these tips help if you ever feel homesick at all and even if you don't get homesick it they are still good things to do to make university an enjoyable experience. 

Enjoy you time away from home because over the summer you will be back to getting annoyed with your parents nagging again :P

Bye 

x