Feeling homesick, experiencing some serious FOMO or wondering whether you made the right choice coming here? I am probably not the first visiting student who felt a bit disoriented after completely resetting my marks. It is a very natural, yet mind-wrecking feeling to be torn between the different places you’ve lived in.
Among these places are your hometown, where you spent your childhood, went to high school and had many of your firsts. Most people want to escape it and others just want to leave out of a desire for adventure. Sometimes, it’s a little bit of both. However, you can’t help but miss it because this place holds precious memories and people that you love; family and old friends (most importantly for me, my cat). This place is often associated with a feeling of guilt for leaving them behind, especially because they are the ones who make this place special.
“There, you discovered a new version of yourself, your independence. You may have had your struggles but looking back it remains an achievement in which you take pride”
Secondly, with an honourable mention, there was the first city where you settled after moving out of your parents’. It was Paris for me, with its long streets, hours spent with my friends at the terrasse of this bar, rain or sunshine, and the exhausting rush that you learn to love. Settling is a very appropriate choice of words because you left your comfort zone to create a new world of yours, with a new environment, people, and routine. There, you discovered a new version of yourself, your independence. You may have had your struggles but looking back it remains an achievement in which you take pride.
Then, let’s not forget this one place you travelled to as a parenthesis from the rest, a foreign country, an isolated island under the sun and surrounded by the ocean. In my case, there was no island, but rather a solo trip to snowy Tromso in Norway. It was only a short vacation, but it allowed you to catch your breath, and made you feel better. Your eyes filled with beautiful sights and your heart warmed, you left a part of yourself there. Now, whenever you think about it, great nostalgia takes hold of you.
Last but not least, the exchange city, Dublin. You came here to study and ended up discovering a whole new country, its culture, and its people. The (many) pubs, red brick buildings and cute coffee shops will do the charm. This may be unknown territory, but it is also a place where you can reinvent yourself. All the multilingual people reading this will relate when I say that just speaking another language is like having a second personality. While living here, you already begin to miss the people you’ve shared this wonderful experience with. You know it’s only temporary. To us, this city is more than just a place, it’s about pushing the horizon further and learning that the world is full of surprises.
“All those locations are ticks on a bigger map, your map. Sometimes, while being here, you are still missing or longing for somewhere else, wishing you could teleport overseas”
All those locations are ticks on a bigger map, your map. Sometimes, while being here, you are still missing or longing for somewhere else, wishing you could teleport overseas. Unfortunately, you can’t be everywhere at one time. That’s okay. You don’t have to choose, they can co-exist because they all have something in common, you. In my opinion, you being here is part of a journey. Whatever is supposed to be the destination, the journey itself, the people that you meet along the way and the many versions of yourself you get to explore are what really matter. So make the most of it and do it at your own pace. Believe it or not, but there is not one specific place meant for you, rather a right place and a right time for you to enjoy and make it yours.
