Homesickness

[Miss Chicken]

Last November, my youngest son left Tasmania to go and live in Brisbane, Queensland. He complained that Tassie was a dump, boring, there was nothing to do etc etc.

Now he has announced that he is coming back. He says he misses Tasmania and is homesick and now realises that Tasmania is his true home.

I expected it would take more than 3 months for him to reach this stage.

However I get homesick when I am away for even a few days. I was away for 15 days just over a year ago. The longest I have ever been away is 26 days.

Do you ever get homesick (and where do you get homesick for)?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I would encourage him to stick it out longer and get over the hump of being homesick. See what it has to offer rather than returning to his comfort zone. Sometimes you can get a lot out of a new place even while missing your home, which can't be said if you go home as soon as you miss it.

 

[Kestra]

It depends on who is with me and how different the place is from my home. I am still a bit homesick for IL and Chicago. But when I was living in Chicago without my husband, it didn't feel like home.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I would encourage him to stick it out longer and get over the hump of being homesick. See what it has to offer rather than returning to his comfort zone. Sometimes you can get a lot out of a new place even while missing your home, which can't be said if you go home as soon as you miss it.

That is possibly true but he has announced his return on Facebook and all his Tasmanian friends are ecstatic. Just before he left his former employers said they will give him his job back if he returns within a year.

 

[RoJoHen]

I used to get homesick for my parent's house after I moved away to college, but I don't anymore. That place just isn't home to me now.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

For me, it would be over 15 years since I've been homesick. During the last 15 years, I have with family, due to some situations that have happened. But when I think of the last few years, I haven't really been homesick, myself. I've had the opportunity to go back to my mum's place every few months.

But there is nothing like when you see your mum for that first time in months (or years), to get that hug from her.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

But there is nothing like when you see your mum for that first time in months (or years), to get that hug from her.

That's really nice. My goal is to be that kind of parent myself not having ever had such a relationship as a daughter. So far it seems to be working very well.

 

[mimic]

I'd applied to a few teaching positions that would have meant I could have lived at home and saved a lot of money, but in retrospect I'm glad I didn't get them. I moved four hours away from where I grew up for my job, and no regrets yet. I don't think I'd feel like an adult if I wasn't living on my own. This year I've gone back twice since August, for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and while it was nice to be around my family and dogs and such I do feel like I've moved on in my life. So that's a no on the homesickness.

I never really felt homesick in college, either.

 

[Finn]

I've been in Louisiana for a week now. I like it down here. People have been wonderful and helpful at my new teaching job.

But I do miss the DC area, and New England. It's strange.... Where I am right now, it looks like May where I grew up.

 

[An Officer]

I am a creature of habit, so I do get homesick if I am away from my habits too long. I miss people more than places as such though. I think you would be very odd, or at least very unhappy at home if you didn't get homesick anymore!

 

[1001001]

I don't get homesick now, except missing my wife and kids. It's not the place, it's the people.

But when I was in Australia for a year, I had a couple bouts of powerful homesickness. The seasons are different (it's cold in July, for corn's sake!). And I remember one particular night looking up and truly grasping how far away I was from home: the stars are different.

It just took a little while (and a phone call home) to pass.

 

[bbailey861]

When I first joined the military I was very homesick. I don't remember how long it lasted but the feeling does wane as you make new friends, set up your own place to live and start your own routine. Now, my homesickness occurs when I am away from my own wife and home. Hell, even when the two of us travel together, we find we become homesick after a spell and have to get ourselves back to familiar surroundings.

 

[Kirkman1987]

I've been living in Memphis for three years now, and I find it a pretty depressing city. Every now and then I get homesick and wish I could be back in the wide open spaces of Missouri and maybe see some horses or livestock while on my drive to work.

Besides the landscape, I miss the friendlier suburban culture and a lot of old friends. Not sure if I'll go back or not, but I know this city is not for me.

 

[TheSeeker]

I lived in Romania for three years and never really got homesick. There were things I missed but I never found myself wishing I were back home.

I'll be moving to New York City this summer for a period of 4 years but I can't imagine I'll get homesick there either. And even if I do home is just over an hour away by air.

 

[Warp Coil]

I am a creature of habit, so I do get homesick if I am away from my habits too long.

I can relate to this, though it has gotten easier over time. I used to get homesick after being away from home for more than a couple of days. I had a difficult time sleeping in a bed that was not my own. As a kid, I would sometimes avoid any situation in which I'd be away from the safety and security of my room. One or two nights away would be all I could handle.

I never moved away from home to go to college. Maybe that was a bad decision, but at the time I had no desire to live with a bunch of strangers and share a living space and bathroom with them, when I had the option of sleeping in the comfort of my own bed every night. Living in a dorm probably would have given me some useful social skills, and I would have adjusted to living in other places.

When I did finally move out of my Dad's house, it was very strange, at first. I have since adjusted and now I consider my home to be "home" instead of my old house. As an adult, I have also started traveling more and I've gotten used to sleeping in hotels and new places. I did get homesick when I took my first international trip (10 days in England) but I think that was because I'd never been gone for so long. My second overseas trip (12 days) was a little easier to handle, but at the end of it, I was definitely ready to come home.

I'd say that I still do get homesick, but I can manage for several days before it kicks in at all. When I am out of town, I miss my routines. I miss my laptop (I don't typically travel with it) and having constant internet access. I miss having access to things in my daily life, like the people, my pets, my car, my gym, etc. It can be somewhat awkward to have to figure out where to eat (since my usual places aren't necessarily available) or dealing with transportation.

This makes it sound like I hate traveling, when it isn't true at all. I do enjoy going to new places, and it's nice to get a break from my life, but I do sometimes have trouble adjusting to everything being so different and being entirely outside of my comfort zone.

 

[Holdfast]

Like others in this thread, I'm both a creature of habit & like my own space, so I dislike having to be more than a few days away from home. I typically prefer shorter holidays like city-breaks, for precisely this reason. It's not homesickness per se; that implies sadness. I don't get sad. It's more that I get frustrated & bored about not being able to live exactly how I want and for things to be easy & straightforward again. For a few days, maybe a week or so, novelty value can outweigh this. Beyond that, I start getting itchy feet.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I don't get homesick in the sense that I want to move back there or even go visit, but I do get nostalgic for how things were in the past. I longingly ponder the places I used to go on a daily basis or my old bedroom at my parents' house. Unfortunately, we can't go back and visit the past (yet), and things now are so different there that it isn't recognizable as what it used to be, so I just have to dwell in my nostalgia for a while.

Otherwise, I don't really get a feeling of homesickness, but that's because I don't have the money to take time away from home very often. Even if I did have the money, I don't really enjoy traveling so I don't foresee myself staying away from home for too long.

I do remember being homesick in the beginning of college, but that was more about missing my boyfriend and cat back home and less about missing my family or old house or that sort of thing.

 

[Finn]

Today, I put on sunblock before taking the dog out for a walk

It's crazy. Where I grew up, people don't put on sunscreen and shorts until May or June.

 

[TerokNor]

Felt pretty homesick around Christmas. While it is a lot better by now, I still will fly home earlier (after 7-8 months, instead 10 months)... however this has a lot reasons, not just homesickness... for example I really need my own space again. I think if I would have my own space here and if I would not be so afraid to not see my dog again, means if she would be younger, I had no problem staying longer, but sometimes there are just things more important than others. If everything works out I will stay 6/7 more weeks in NZ, please pray that my dog does not die in these weeks.

I think a time abroad, no matter how long, just helps learning a lot about oneself, and when your son decides after 3 months this is not it, but he was happier over there, than thats how it is. Better trying and coming back, than not trying and always regretting not having tried and wondering, what would have been, if...

TerokNor

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

It's also nice, in the case of your son Miss Chicken, to have them appreciate what they had! It's a good antidote to the "everything here sucks" attitude which is so common.