As an international student, I found it particularly difficult to be homesick because I could not simply take a train to my family’s house one weekend while most of my English friends did so. I spent the start of my first year missing home, trying to repress it and not knowing what to do about it.
As eager as I was to finally be away from home, independent in a whole new country, I found myself missing my usual supermarket and the way I knew where everything was. I missed the skatepark where I hadn't been in 5 years. I missed the park route I used to take when going for a run.
When you do go back home, it only makes you appreciate all the little things more
It’s easy to want to get rid of this feeling but I have found that I deal with it better by embracing it and searching for places that will remind me of home in the new home I am making for myself. Finding my new favourite park, a new supermarket I can go and navigate with my eyes closed. And when you do go back home, it only makes you appreciate all the little things more.
Being homesick is a part of leaving any place where you have felt at home. I know I will feel it when I leave Newcastle at the end of the year. Being homesick only means the place was important to you and you still feel for it. I have found this realisation to be extremely liberating.
