Home sickness in your first year of varsity - first time away from home
You cannot reshape an already mature tree now can you?
The first week was long, very long and tiring I
must say. Thing is, that week was like an introduction to varsity life(but more
focused on our course). The only form of comfort I had was calling my friend
who was back home at the time. It was so bad that I called him everyday and we
would speak for 2 hours over the phone talking about general stuff; it honestly
helped me a lot as I felt closer to home. What I realized was that it was the
memories that made me miss home like crazy. I was being haunted by memories as
though I was being haunted by a ghost or something. Additionally my friends
made me miss home, see thing is there are more than just friends according the
amount of time we spent together; they are my brothers. Every song I played
reminded me of home, the moments I shared with my bros, my hardships and
achievements back home and in school, the people from my community, everything...basically everything! However there were moments whereby I would be unconscious
to the fact that I miss home simply because of the workload, these moments
didn't last very long though as I had emotional breakdowns after classes.
Furthermore I saw how settled the other kids were
and I failed to understand how and why until I decided to investigate by means
of asking them. Surprisingly most of them where from around the area/province.
I on the other hand came from a town that was 350 kilometers away. They seemed
to know each other, people coming from the same school were reunited, people
from the same community were reunited, I was the only one from my community and
school, but there were others in the same situation as me. I felt so alone it was literally
depressing. Yes I had made a few friends but I was never totally there as my
heart yearned for my brothers. I will adapt that is inevitable but the
experience has scared me in many ways. Note; i am not much of a socialite so I believe that was another factor that contributed to the misery. Second week
wasn't as bad as the first as by then I knew the place better and my mind was
occupied most of the time with thoughts of what the year holds for me and how
exactly am I going to tackle the challenges that lay ahead.
Well I write this and it's the end of my third
week away from home and in a new environment. Honestly I don't feel as bad as I did when I first came here so yeah that's the good news, however, miss home I do some mornings(3/5 days I experience such) further, during the weekends
especially friday afternoons(like today)...but hey I will be fine eventually
just have a strong feeling that it won't be anytime soon unfortunately.
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That's me looking out the window wondering what I would be doing back home at this very moment... |
Homesickness is real hey, I can testify to that.
Yeah if you're a high school learner and reading this then chances are you're thinking to
yourself you won't miss home and that I was/am being a sissy. Well I don't know
hey but one thing i'll tell you is that I once bluffed myself with those words.
It may not even be your first week, it can even be your 10th week, thing is in the end you are going to miss home, you are going to experience some form of
homesickness sooner or later. I guess it wasn't as nice to me.
This was a guest post by Sizwe, a first year Accounting student at Wits University. If you would like to share your student experiences you are welcome to contact us. Please like our Facebook Page and subscribe via email to get our latest posts.