Family

As my year abroad is coming to a close, one thing that I have realized, is the importance of family to my personal well being. An aspect of my abroad experience that I have struggled with the entire year is not seeing my family. During my study so far at UMass Amherst, I always had the option of going to see my family at basically a moment’s notice. If I got the flu, I could very easily go home the next weekend. If I was in a concert, my parents could visit me for the day and see the concert, without any difficulty at all. My mom would sometimes even go out to Amherst so she could join me for lunch. This year, being away from my family was a big adjustment. 

I learned that I needed to really make effort to talk to my family. I couldn’t just rely on knowing that they would always be there when I was at home, because I wasn’t at home! It was easier to keep in contact with my parents than other family members as I had a better idea of their schedule, but still, there were plenty of times when the six hour time difference made it extremely hard to actually spend time talking to them. I found for me the best thing was to make sure I texted them at least once a day. This is something that was easy to keep up and would be convenient for both parties. Even if my parents and I had very busy days, we could both text back when it was convenient for ourselves. Keeping in touch with your family when you’re abroad is extremely important. 

It was also a bit hard when it came time for holidays to occur. There when it really hit me that I was away from my family. Now, I have an aunt who is from Germany and that’s when her family really came into my life. For instance, I celebrated Christmas with her aunt and uncle and even though I was thousands of miles away from my family, I still felt like I had a family to celebrate the holidays with. If you have any family, no matter how extended it is, take advantage of their being there! 

Another thing I found really useful, especially the first semester, was spending time with friends and especially cooking meals with friends. I’ve had many friends when we’d get together just for the purpose of cooking “family dinners.” This is really important and can often make you cook healthier food than you would be cooking if you were just cooking for yourself. 

When you’re abroad, your friends really become like your family. They’re there for all of your ups and downs and are the people you go with when you need to do any bureaucratic things. Make sure you form solid friendships with people. It will will make being homesick a lot less bad. As humans we need to have family and it’s important that just because you may be away from your actual family, you don’t miss the supportive environment in many families can provide.