At some point in all our lives I think we all experience homesickness; whether it’s moving away to university, travelling or moving abroad to work or study.
It’s often not until you move away that you realise how much you miss your home. When I moved away to university I wasn’t particularly homesick, despite it being a city I’d never been to before, it was still in England, and so things weren’t all that different. It was moving aboard to France a month ago that made me extremely homesick, added to the fact I had nowhere permanent to live only made the situation worse. I even considered moving back home as I felt that bad, but I knew I just couldn’t do that as I would have let myself and my family and friends down. As my dad put it, “triumphing over adversity only makes one stronger.”
The first few weeks before I found somewhere to live were stressful, but once I found somewhere to live and started teaching I felt more settled and things started to fall into place.
I think homesickness is really a blessing in disguise; it makes you realise how lucky you are to have the people at home who care about you, and overcoming homesickness and the obstacles you face make you a stronger person. It also made me realise how proud I am to be British, and how much I missed England, for example whenever I bought a metro ticket I changed the language to English, even though I can understand French; as if I was acknowledging the fact that I am English so it must be in English.
I for one am glad that I persevered and didn’t give up. I know there will be more hard times ahead, but that just makes returning home more special, and makes you more appreciative of what you have.
