Life
6 Things Everyone Does When They're Homesick
As someone who lives in a country (the U.S.) far away from where I was born (Australia), I feel homesick deeply and regularly. Sometimes my homesickness is so intense that I just want to curl into a ball and will myself back home. Everything feels very grand and melodramatic when you're home sick. You're SO lonely. NO ONE here loves you. You DON'T BELONG. Why did you RUIN YOUR LIFE by moving away. In the grips of homesickness, some of the most irrational thoughts start to seem very reasonable, especially ones pertaining to why home is so much better than your current living situation.
Most of it has to do with the fact that your family, the people who love you wildly and unconditionally, are at home. Also I think generally, life was always is easier when you are where you're from. You have history and knowledge and everything feels comfortable and safe compared to the wild, wild outside world where everything is foreign, absurd and chaotic. There are certain behaviors, even though they are very specific, that we all engage in when we feel this way. So if you're trying to make a home away from home for yourself and it doesn't always feel quite right, leading you to ball yourself into a fetal position and hyperventilate instead of keeping it together, don't fret: you're not alone. Here are six things everyone does when they're feeling homesick.
1. Phone home obsessively
When you're homesick, you're basically E.T.: All you want to do is phone home. Whereas you might speak to your mom once or twice a week normally, when homesickness strikes, you'll be constantly calling, constantly texting, constantly on Facebook, trying to get attention from someone back home so you can remind yourself that they're still there, you're still connected, and that nothing has changed in your absence.
2. Cook that favorite comfort meal your mom used to make when you were a kid
You'll want to pretend like you're at home, so in lieu of acting like a helpless baby while your mom makes you your favorite childhood meal, you'll make it yourself. And probably cry-eat your way through it, because let's face it, it's never quite the same as it is at home.
3. Dramatically smell your childhood teddy bear
It doesn't have to be your teddy bear, but you'll be like a left behind girlfriend in a '90s action movie, gripping an artifact from home to your face and inhaling like its a drug that will make everything feel numb for a bit.
4. Lay in bed gripping pictures of your family and crying
If inhaling the smell of home makes you Liv Tyler in Armageddon , crying while gripping pictures of your family makes you Molly Ringwald in any '80s teen movie. You'll hug photos of your parents, siblings, and best friends as though you're hugging the actual people themselves, and kiss them good night so dramatically and tenderly while trying not to slobber snot all over them that an impartial observer might think someone died or you got dumped.
5. Irrationally compare everything about your current residence to home, finding it to be irreparably lacking
Being homesick is self-defeating. Instead of trying to be positive, you'll completely romanticize home, and in your mind, it will become way more grand and perfect than in actually is. At the same time, you'll compare it to your temporary home, and the comparisons will always be found to be lacking, and you'll make your current residence seem far worse than it actually is. Productive, huh?
6. Troll the Internet looking for the cheapest flights home possible while trying to rationalize taking a week off work
Finally, you'll waste hours online trawling deal sites for cheap flights so you can get your ass home. You'll try and justify taking unnecessary time off work, who will water your plants while you're away, and what excuse you'll make to your boss as to why you have to leave next week in such a hurry. In the end, it will all be a pipe dream, and you'll be swayed by prohibitively high last minute flight prices and the inconvenience of having to re-organize your life in order to get away. Naturally, you'll go back to wearing your high school sweater, sobbing over your mom's signature apricot chicken recipe, and huffing the smell out of every item you transported from home to your new location.
