Moving away from home can be exciting, eye-opening and challenging. Homesickness is often felt for the first time when leaving to go to college and it can be a difficult time for many students. It is important not to let feeling homesick prevent yourself from enjoying your college experience and making the most of your new found freedom. If you feel uncomfortable in your new surroundings, are lonely or are having difficulties adjusting, I hope my 5 ways to eliminate homesickness will help!

1. Bring Home To College

Making my new dorm feel more like home made me feel a lot more comfortable. My personal fave is fairy lights! I got some of my favorite photos of friends and family for my walls and brought my favorite books and artwork to make the room more personalized. By making my room interesting, it created conversation starters when new friends stopped by!

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2. Create A Routine

A lot of worry that stems from leaving home is not having the same routine which causes difficulty in adjusting to new surroundings. I carried on with my hobbies and interests just like I would at home which is a great way of meeting new people! By checking out the sports teams and activities on campus, it kept me occupied and before I knew it, I never wanted to leave!

3. Skype

Technology is a great way to stay connected with friends and family, however I made sure I took breaks and didn’t Skype for too long to avoid becoming too connected and missing home even more. Instead, I used this time to find new things to do in my new environment and met people to do it with. This was a welcome distraction and made me enjoy myself more.

4. Get Friends To Visit

Making plans with friends from home was a great way to enjoy my new environment while keeping in touch. It gave me a confidence boost when I was out to meet new people while having my bestie by my side!

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5. Keep A Journal

Writing down my thoughts and feelings helped to relieve the stress of moving to somewhere new and worked towards making myself feel happier about my new surroundings. A handy tip that works for me is to write the best thing about my day. Writing something positive each day made the world of difference and helped to create happy memories when I look back on them. Try and see the benefits of moving away; making new friends and sharing new experiences may be terrifying at first but college experiences are those which stay with you forever.