One month. 5.500 miles away from family, friends and memories. Not even a slightly bit homesick. Please don't think I'm some heartless human soul. As long as I know they are safe and doing well I am alright.
Hilluuuuu!
Happy Saturday everybody! I have now been living in California for a month and a lot of people have asked me, how I deal with homesickness, and how I deal with being abroad as the youngest in my group. First I want to start with 3 tips about how to survive and deal with homesickness, and then I'll write about my experiences with homesickness for the last month here in California.
1) Talk To The People You Miss
Skype, Facebook, Viber, Facetime, etc. There are so many ways you can communicate with the people you miss at home. Some people might think, that it is a bad idea to remind yourself about the things at home as you tend to get even more homesick. I think it depends on the person. I feel better when I know they are fine and doing good. Hearing their voices and seeing them smile. That is all I need. As long as you remember the reason why you wanted to go abroad. Don't sit in your room all day talking to your entire family and all of your friends. You wanted to do this for a reason. Hopefully that reason was to experience something different. Not the same old habits, same old people, some old things in a new place.
2) Go Home
Maybe you are living in a foreign country permanently. You have a place to sleep, a job and even good friends, but you still miss the place you grew up, the smells and the memories. It is okay to go back for a couple of weeks (maybe even longer) and admit you miss home. It is okay to miss that life you had when you were there.
3) Make The Best Out of It
This can be a bit tough for some, but if you know you are 'only' going to be away from home for 1 year, you might as well try to make the best of it. Go get some hot chocolate, watch a movie, go for a run, do something you love to do. Enjoy the time you are abroad. It will not last forever. Soon it will all be over and you will just look back at all the experiences and memories you made. You don't want to look back at all the things you said no to and things you didn't do, because you were too busy complaining about wanting to go home. Sometimes it helps distracting yourself. Meet some of the locals. Make new friends. Try to make your abroad experience your second home. Do something worth to remember. You never know when you will get a chance like that again. 
How I Have Dealt With Homesickness For The Last Month
I don't feel emotionally attached to Denmark as I think I'm supposed to. The only thing that connects me to Denmark is my parents (and all of the memories of course). I'm not saying that I am not connected to Denmark. Because I am indeed connected to Denmark. I will properly always feel some kind of national pride when talking about Denmark, but home is not just a place to rest at night. Home is a feeling, and I am not even sure where my home is.
I don't hate Denmark - I just don't feel like I need to be in Denmark to be home. I want to go to Denmark as much as I want to go to Thailand, England, Hong Kong or Australia. It is like I can feel at home where ever I want. That might be a good thing, if you want to travel the world. It makes you adaptable. It also make you feel really lost. Like you don't have a home at all. Feeling misplaced and disoriented is normal teenage behavior and thoughts (trust me, I have been there), but feeling deeply happily lost. That, I haven't tried before.
When I went to Santa Barbara some weeks ago, I saw a sweater that reminded me a lot of my mother (she has the exact same sweater) and I just began to smile and get teary eyes, but then I started to laugh a bit. Laugh at myself. Not because I was homesick, but because I was relieved. I don't think I have realized yet, that I'm 5.500 miles away from my everything I have known and grown up with. How am I about that? I am alright. I'm grand. I feel like I am actually living.
You might think 'she is only fifteen, what does she know about living?' And I don't. There are actually a whole lot of things I don't know anything about. One thing I do know, though, is that I'm quite happy here. In my opinion, everything that makes you happy for existence makes you alive.
You might think 'she is only fifteen, what does she know about living?' And I don't. There are actually a whole lot of things I don't know anything about. One thing I do know, though, is that I'm quite happy here. In my opinion, everything that makes you happy for existence makes you alive.
When I sit in the school bus in the morning, listening to gentle melodies through my headphones, still waking up slowly, while watching the fog kiss the mountain tops as the bus drives by. When I discuss international issues that affects the global economy and using English terms I didn't even know existed. When I feel the Californian sunlight touch my cheek slightly and leaving a smile on my face. It reminds me, that I'm alive.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night feeling sad. Disoriented. Misplaced. As nothing makes sense; and nothing ever will. But when I lie there in the middle of the night, 3am, listening to the night's silent singing, a thought crosses my head. I don't feel any different in Denmark.
You're on the other side
As the skyline splits in two
Miles away from seeing you
But I can see the stars from America
I wonder, do you see them too?
~ · ~
You see... I have this thing, where my mind starts to wander to all different directions of my messed up brain. My American English teaches us to focus and control our thoughts. Sometimes it sounds like a good idea, sometimes it sounds like the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard.
Have you ever felt homesick? What are something that helps you to stop being homesick?
Love you all and have a great super amazing day! xx
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