The Best Medicine is Perspective

Four walls and a roof, family, and where the heart, or childhood dog is,are all ways to describe home. But a stuffy dorm room and pre-made meals may not.

Needless to say, homesickness is not for the faint of heart. And as a senior, I can say it doesn’t necessarily go away. After coming back to school for the past four years, I’ll be the first to admit that the little ache in your heart or gut-wrenching pit in your stomach when you end the family phone call doesn’t cease with time–but that’s something we all have to face. 

However, over the past four years homesickness has begun to take a different form. This year, I appreciate it. 

When we think of homesickness, the normal explanation is that we miss family, have to deal with new experiences that are unfamiliar to us and feel out of place. But for me, homesickness is different now. Finally, Santa Clara is home–it only took 4 years! And I say this because Santa Clara now reminds me of my childhood home–lasting friends, welcoming housemates and routines. This shift has made me realize that I am more homesick than ever, but this time I miss home because it resembles my home here. 

The homesickness that I feel now was different from the one during my first year of college–this one is oddly comforting. For those that also feel this way, or a different more worrisome homesickness, like I bet some first-years feel, I have some advice on how to nip that feeling–embrace it. 

Being able to miss home means that you probably have a loving and comforting one, or multiple, waiting for you somewhere else in the world. I recognize that I am extremely privileged to be able to miss a home, as this is not always the situation for every college student. But, being able to embrace this uneasy feeling allows you to remember what home should be and how you have the chance to make room for a new home in Santa Clara.