I went out of state to college, so there were times that I was terribly homesick. I remember fall of my Freshman year, my mom had just helped me move in to the dorm. We were standing by her car and there were other students and parents saying their goodbyes. I heard a lot of "see you this weekend" or "see you in two weeks", my mom said, "See you at Thanksgiving". OMG! That is THREE months from NOW!! The first couple of months are hard, I am the first to admit it. But there are some things you can do to combat the homesickness.

Students, here are some ideas for you.

Pictures - I had tons of pictures, so if I needed to "see" my mom I would pull out my favorite picture of us. Don't do it too often.
Routine - When we live at home we have a routine, which is what is familiar and gives us that "homey" feel. So when you are in college setup a routine as much as possible. Think about the one or two things from home that you like the most and see if you can incorporate it in to your routine. One of mine, which might seem strange, was Orange Juice. My mom always had OJ out for me in the morning. So I made sure that I always had a glass of OJ in the morning before class.

Contact with Home - What worked best for me was to establish a schedule for calling home. At first it was fairly frequent, then we settled into what worked for us. I started a journal so I could write down the things that I wanted to make sure to tell them, but tried to resist the urge to call off schedule. Of course if I really needed to talk to them I would call. Sometimes you will just have days like that.

Activities - The best way to get past homesickness is to stay busy! You have class and studying which are most important (parents you can thank me for that later), but that doesn't fill your whole day. So find one or two things that you are interested in. I was in the Marching Band and the Student Government. If you had a volunteer activity that you participated in during high school see if there is something similar where you are now. The point is to find things to do, because if you sit alone in your dorm room, the homesickness can be overwhelming.

Greeks - So "going Greek" is not for everyone. If you have a Greek community on campus, check them out. Make sure that you make the right decision for you. There are some wonderful benefits from being Greek, but it is a huge commitment. The biggest benefit for me while I was in college, was I immediately had a group of people that were there ALL the time.

So that is the homesick blog for students, tune in for the homesick blog for parents.

Jenn

CAPlus of Denver

www.caplusdenver.com