Before coming back to uni for my final year, I was practically itching to get back. I love my family very dearly, but after living without them for most of the year, it’s easy to miss the lifestyle you’ve built away from them when you move back over the summer. However, once I moved into my new house, and my mum had left me to go home, this overwhelming feeling of emptiness and anxiety overcame me. I felt so lonely and all I wanted was for her to come pick me up and take me back home.
While I was feeling these mixture of emotions, I wondered why I felt so homesick when I’ve done this for the past few years with ease. But still, the homesickness creeps in and makes me doubt everything. You just assume that once you have done this for a few years, you would get used it, but you don’t, and nobody really talks about it.
Now it’s been a few months, and I’ve settled into my routines again, I’m feeling a lot less homesick. Granted, I did go home for reading week, which always helps. But the feeling hasn’t just disappeared, it’s still there, lingering in the background most days. Also, the fact that me and my housemates didn’t have Wi-Fi for the first 6 weeks did not help the feeling. But in a way, it was both a blessing and a curse. While I felt severely disconnected from my parents, family and friends at home, not being able to facetime them at the drop of a hat, me and my housemates bonded so closely in those weeks which we wouldn’t have happened in the same way if we had access to the internet.
It’s funny really, when you move to uni, you kind of feel like you’re in limbo. You grow up and change so much, that you no longer fit in or feel like you belong in your hometown, but you still miss it, the people there, and who you used to be in some ways. But, you can never go back to who you used to be when living there. However, I don’t always feel like I fit in at uni as well. There are so many groups and societies you can be a part of at university that sometimes you can get lost in it all, dipping your toe in everything, but never really settling on one thing that is yours. One place where you belong.
There are many things I do, that you can also do to make the homesickness fade, such as facetiming your family and friends from home regularly, doing activities that remind you of home or having comfort items at your uni house from home.
Personally, my comfort items are my blanket that I’ve had for a long time, a crocheted panda that my sister gave me as a gift one Christmas, and a necklace my parents bought me for GCSE results day. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter, if it makes you uni house feel more like a home, then it will do. Keeping yourself busy also helps, as it distracts your brain from feeling homesick, by busying it with other fun plans to think about. For example, going to the cinema with your friends, exploring your city, – I’ve been in Cardiff for over two years and there are still so many adventures to be had here – crafts night or baking night in, trying out a new restaurant that you’ve never been to before etc.
Feeling homesick does not have to be a barrier, you can still enjoy university life while being homesick at the same time. Making the most of the opportunities, both social and academic, university has to offer will also make you more excited about being at uni, and not think about home.
Here are some links to resources if you are dealing with feelings of homesickness:
Cardiff Students Union page on Loneliness, Isolation & Homesickness: https://www.cardiffstudents.com/advice/health-and-wellbeing/lonelinessisolationandhomesickness/#:~:text=Bring%20some%20of%20your%20favourite,feel%20more%20familiar%20and%20cosy.&text=Talk%20to%20friends%20and%20family,somebody%20you%20know%20and%20trust.
Student Intranet’s page on Homesickness: https://intranet.cardiff.ac.uk/students/health-and-wellbeing/self-help-resources/homesickness
Cardiff’s Buddy Scheme: https://www.cardiffstudents.com/activities/studentled/buddyscheme
TalkCampus App: https://intranet.cardiff.ac.uk/students/health-and-wellbeing/talk-campus
Words By Ella Collis