Homesickness

A few days ago I felt homesick which I found quite odd as I no longer really have a place that I would call home so I began to think “what is homesickness?”

My experience of feeling homesick was a feeling of wanting to be somewhere other than where I am now, just for a little while. I wanted to be close to my family and have fun with some old friends. My first thought was that perhaps it is familiarity that I miss, and then I started to wonder if there was something uncomfortable in my life that I want to get away from. Why was it that I had been feeling perfectly happy and then I had felt homesick?

When life feels a bit uncomfortable even in a positive manner it is quite normal to want to resort to some comfort that we can recall from our past, and after a bit of consideration I realised that this was the case for me on this particular day. I had been making some changes in my life and this was causing some unease. I wanted to seek some familiarity in the form of being with family and I was feeling some nostalgia for my teenage days in East Africa and therefore missing some of my friends whom I have not seen for many years. I realised I was dwelling on the past and fantasizing about the future and as a result I was not enjoying where I am today. (more…)