Homesickness+and+College+Students

**III.** **What is homesickness?**
===Homesickness takes place when a person leaves behind the comfort that their home has provided for them. For college students, it is not only the comfort of their home, but the comfort that their parents have also provided for them for the previous eighteen years of their life. A person can become sad or depressed because of this longing for their home and family. People want to be surrounded by familiar things such as family, friends, home, and pets. When people feel this way, it is because they want a sense of comfort and security. When homesickness takes over, people feel alone and like they have no one to talk to or confide in. Overall, homesickness is a completely normal feeling, especially when going to college.===

**IV. Causes of homesickness.**
===When people leave the comfort of their own home, it causes them to feel isolated. The anxiety of academic performance can also lead to homesickness, which can lead to separation anxiety, where they find it difficult to share their feelings with an understanding person. Another thing that causes homesickness is financial stress because students are worried about funding their living and paying for college at the same time if they do not have financial assistance from family members.===

**V. Coping with homesickness.**
===One way to cope with homesickness is to call home every now and then. Calling home is a way of communicating with family members without having to go home all of the time. Another way to cope with homesickness is to go home, but only once. If a student keeps going home every chance they get, they will never get used to being away from home. Going out with friends from college is also a good way of coping with homesickness because it takes a person's mind off of the feeling of being homesick and the person will be having fun at the same time. Calling some friends from back home is a coping mechanism because chances are one of them are going through the same feelings and it could be a comfort to both people. One more way to cope with homesickness is to leave the dorm room because staying in the room is just helping to stay isolated and not make any new friends.===