Freshers’ week serves as the best distraction from that deep pit in your stomach when you realise you’re away from everything you’ve ever known. Family and friends all disappear from your daily routine, and suddenly you’re sitting alone in a lecture theatre looking around at groups that magically formed overnight. But in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, how do you overcome homesickness and enjoy the fact that you’re on your own?
The reality is that you will probably spend your first semester either being hungover from the night out before, or uncontrollably sobbing when you stare at a photo from on your pinboard for too long. My first semester was a trainwreck, feeling both suffocated and excited by the novelty of being far away from home. The urge to escape back home to where there was no need for new introductions had never felt more appealing. Though it took time, I had come to terms with the fact that nothing would happen by being confined within the four walls of my first year bedroom. Whether it was as simple as walking a different way to campus each day, or shocking myself in the ice cold sea for the Blue Tits weekly swim — keeping myself busy each day slowly shifted my mind into the present, instead of fixating on my stagnant idea of home.
Though the thought of it may make your heartbeat so rapid that it could jumpstart a car, overcoming the pangs of homesickness also includes becoming comfortable with doing things alone. As silly as it may sound, the power of headphones and a playlist to romanticise a solo walk anywhere has never done me wrong. Besides, how can you complain when you’re strolling across Stockbridge listening to Lana del Rey?
When everything feels like too much and you just need to see a familiar face, try to visit your home friends wherever they may be. With Durham being only a train ride away, I made it a frequent occasion to travel over to visit my best friend and explore a new city. Meeting her new friends not only made me incredibly happy for her, but also encouraged me to recreate that for myself. For the ones that aren’t close by, a phone call out of the blue never hurts.
Like freshers’ flu, homesickness will crawl back every year. Learning how to cope with it is understanding that it’s one of the truest forms of love for everyone that has made you into who you are today. Use that to propel yourself forward into enjoying your own company and finding the people that will make home feel not so far away. That facetime button is always there when you just need to lose yourself in conversation with someone that knows you better than you do.
Illustration by Clara MacDonald for The Student.
