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Staffordshire University
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Dealing with Homesickness at University

Hi guys it’s Rhys! As we go into the New Year, today I’m going to be talking a bit about dealing with homesickness in University. It’s very easy to get home sick, especially if it’s your first year living away from home or you’re just very close to your family and friends at home. For me, it’s not something that goes away easy and occasionally it comes back but today I’ll just share some tips that can hopefully help you feel better!

Personally, I have definitely dealt with homesickness before. When I first went to University, at a different one mind you, I really struggled as I was away from home for the first time, in a big city and I wasn’t even sure who I really was. All of that contributed to me feeling very homesick a lot and added on to other feelings I was having about being at that university. It made slightly negative experiences feel ten times worse and left me feeling very alone. However, when I came back to university I had a much easier time and found different things that made me feel better and be able to push past the feelings of homesickness. So, I’m gonna share those things below and hopefully if you’re worried about feeling homesick when you go to university they’ll be helpful to keep in minds!

The first and most known one is keeping in contact. With technology it’s so easy to keep in contact in a way that’s for you. A lot of people call their families or Facetime eachother but we were never that sort of family. So for me, I use a groupchat with my siblings and parents as a way to keep in contact. We don’t have proper conversations all the time but we do always tlel eachother about weird things that happen to us, funny things we’ve seen and sometimes just good old complaining. Having that groupchat always available has been so helpful in a variety of ways. Similarly, I also keep in contact with my friends from college this way too that way we’re still always friends even if we’re not talking lots at a certain time.

Next, sentimentality. The first year I went to university I went through Facebook and picture albums and found pictures of people important in my life, family memories and times with my friends. I then printed them out and keep them in my room. I find it’s something nice that makes me feel better if I feel homesick as I have people close by and can think about nice memories with those people.

Finally a really important one is living in the moment now. Homesickness can be really tough especially if you already are dealing with mental health problems. Sometimes it might cause you to want to isolate yourself and only speak to people you have known for years or even leave frequently to go and visit. But that can also make homesickness worse as you feel like you’re isolated from everyone else. As such, it’s an important step to make new friends and do different things so you have things at University that are also important to you and make where you’re living a second home. Friends, coursemates, work friends, relationships and anything like that are important to find close by and not just at home!

To finish this post up, I also want to say that if you are struggling there’s no harm in talking to anyone about it! Your lecturers, tutors, friends and anyone else important to you will want to know if you’re feeling bad and will have ways of offering different kinds of support to get you through. A lot of students go through it so whatever university you’re at, or hoping to go to, will have support prepared they can give you! I hope this post has been helpful and I’ll see you guys again soon!

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