I promise, I will write some more posts about what I actually did this summer eventually, but I just talked with my friend about this and decided I want to write a post about it. She was saying, and I agree, that it's hard to talk about this with people who haven't studied/lived abroad, so maybe someone will find this who feels like no one understands and they will know that they are not alone :)
One of the most difficult and most rewarding parts of studying abroad is setting up a new life in a new place with a new family and new friends. A wonderful feeling is when you realize that this new place has become home. Yes, it may not replace your original home, but it becomes a home nonetheless. Being homesick but feeling at home in this case feels a little odd, but you expect it. What you don't expect is the reverse when you really do go home. You are so happy to be home, but after a while that excitement wears off and you realize that you are homesick for your other home. You are still happy to be home and feel completely at home, and yet you are homesick for this other place that meant nothing to you X months ago. Maybe this doesn't happen to everyone, but it happened to me. I didn't realize what the weird feeling was that I had when I came home from Costa Rica until I came home from Morocco: It's weird to feel homesick when you are at home. I don't know what the answer is because I still feel this way when I stop to think about my other homes, but with time it has gotten easier to let those feelings of homesickness recede a little. It helps that I really do love being home and my hometown is really where I feel the most at home, but I still ache with homesickness when I think about those other lives, other families, other friends.
I guess these last two posts have kind of been downers, but again I must emphasize that studying abroad is still worth it. I loved my other homes, my other lives, and you know what they say: Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. And hey, nothing makes you appreciate home like coming back to it after time away :)
One of the most difficult and most rewarding parts of studying abroad is setting up a new life in a new place with a new family and new friends. A wonderful feeling is when you realize that this new place has become home. Yes, it may not replace your original home, but it becomes a home nonetheless. Being homesick but feeling at home in this case feels a little odd, but you expect it. What you don't expect is the reverse when you really do go home. You are so happy to be home, but after a while that excitement wears off and you realize that you are homesick for your other home. You are still happy to be home and feel completely at home, and yet you are homesick for this other place that meant nothing to you X months ago. Maybe this doesn't happen to everyone, but it happened to me. I didn't realize what the weird feeling was that I had when I came home from Costa Rica until I came home from Morocco: It's weird to feel homesick when you are at home. I don't know what the answer is because I still feel this way when I stop to think about my other homes, but with time it has gotten easier to let those feelings of homesickness recede a little. It helps that I really do love being home and my hometown is really where I feel the most at home, but I still ache with homesickness when I think about those other lives, other families, other friends.
I guess these last two posts have kind of been downers, but again I must emphasize that studying abroad is still worth it. I loved my other homes, my other lives, and you know what they say: Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. And hey, nothing makes you appreciate home like coming back to it after time away :)
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