Your alarm clock buzzes early in the morning.Waking up in your overly spring-filled dormitory bed is just not the same as waking up in your comfortable, plushy bed at home. Lunch at a dining hall becomes bland in comparison to home cooking. And talk of a friend going home for the weekend only seems to intensify your own longing for home. Homesickness strikes again.
Whether you’re a freshman living away from home for the first time or a senior readjusting to college life after summer, the odds are that most students feel some form of homesickness during their time at college.
According to Pediatrics, a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, homesickness is the, “distress and functional impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from home and attachment objects such as parents.”
Tony Callahan, junior in the College of Engineering, still has these feelings from time to time. “As a freshman, I mainly missed my family and home,” Callahan said. “But after freshman year, I became homesick for my friends from home since I spent my summer with them.”
The first step to alleviating homesickness is involvement in extra-curricular activities and student organizations. Shannon Rohn, junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, found that her own involvement in Active Minds and Alpha Chi Omega helped her get over the homesickness hump. “Alpha Chi Omega has given me sisters who care about me and are willing to go to great lengths to ensure that I am OK and feel loved,” Rohn said.
Dr. Angela Zapata, a counselor in Marquette’s counseling center, says everyone feels a little homesick in one way or another, but suggests that along with campus organizations, students can have an easier transition by becoming familiar with other outlets, such as the Center for Peacemaking and Campus Ministry, and even your resident assistant.
Jackie Adler, junior in the College of Education and resident assistant in Mashuda Hall, uses a hands-on approach when one of her residents approaches her with feelings of homesickness. Adler said, “It’s easiest to connect [my residents] to people on their wing by finding people with similar interests and then finding clubs based on those interests to make them more comfortable.”
Aside from campus involvement, a little interior decorating can go a long way. Photos and other sentimental items make your dorm or apartment feel more like a home away from home than a hotel room. Anything from a collage, to a gift from an old friend or a souvenir from a family trip can instantly warm up your room.
But no matter how many pictures are plastered to the wall, a room lacks the familiar voices of loved ones. To fill this void, students can embrace certain technology, such as Facebook, Skype or Google Plus to stay up to date on friends’ lives.
Ryan Lifka, sophomore in the College of Health Sciences and new Skype member, believes Skype is very helpful for a homesick student. “It benefits the student by providing a ‘passageway’ into the world back home, the world they’re used to, the world they miss,” Lifka said.
Lorena Martínez, sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, left her native Puerto Rico to attend college at Marquette. She remembers having the urge to return home during the first semester of her freshman year. But after visiting friends at another college, she realized how much she loved Marquette. “I came back with a different perspective,” Martinez said. “I really needed to be away for a few days to realize what I had in front of me [at Marquette].”