All of my flatmates go home every weekend and there is nothing wrong with that, but for me, going home isn’t just an hour-long affair, it’s a bus, a Luas and a two-hour train rides away. It takes me over three hours to get home, so it ends up being a monthly trek.
I was lucky enough to receive campus accommodation when I was in my first year at DCU. Right from the outset, I was slap bang in the middle of it all, all the parties, all the pre-drinks, all the lectures, all on my doorstep. I was lucky in that I didn’t have to commute or travel to college, but although I had everything I needed to complete my college life, home was absolutely nowhere to be found.
Funnily enough, I wasn’t homesick at all in first year. Perhaps towards the end, when I chose to stay on campus for a few weeks after I had finished, I became a little tired and weary of the place. Moving back was soul crushing for me, the drastic change from a busy, bustling city to a quiet rural town with nothing to do, no opportunities was hard.
When I got straight back into second year and into my life on campus again, the first few weeks shook me and I was undeniably homesick. Going home every weekend made for hours and days wasted on trains, always being tired, never really going anywhere and never really staying anywhere. It was a nightmare, keeping track of things like food and laundry became impossible.
But, having my boyfriend in college meant a piece of home was with me some of the time, even when I was away from home. My college work was done on trains, lectures were rushed into and rushed out of. Eventually, I couldn’t handle the weekly commute anymore, so I stopped.
However now whenever I have a dilemma, I hear my mother’s voice in my head. I can very clearly hear her tone, her sharp comment, her witty remark. Whenever I face a situation in which I don’t know how to behave, I hear her voice, sometimes, she’s wrong. Most of the time however, she pretty much nails it. In my head, I could hear her asking me why I was travelling up and down the country for no reason every few days, and why on earth I was missing home, when DCU is so much better? I decided she was right.
As the weeks flew by, I got insanely busy. Project upon project piled up, college work started to rear its head and assignments approached due dates. Going home wasn’t an option, because I had to stay in college and work. Societies hosted events, all of which I trailed along to. My life began to consist of making food, going to a lecture, meeting friends, getting food, getting home, going to the library, studying, working, writing, sleeping. I got so busy I forgot all about home.
I decided to come clean as to why I was feeling blue. I told my mum I was homesick a few weeks ago on the phone the other night, but how I had finally gotten over it, that she was the reason I kept going “Sure, I didn’t even notice you were gone,” she said.
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