Homesickness is something that affects all students at some time or other during their time away from home. Although university should be the time of your life, there will be times when the stress of exams or long periods without home comforts can lead you to feel a little bit blue. Feeling lonely is a perfectly acceptable emotion but there are some things you can do to ensure that feeling homesick doesn’t adversely impact your time at university.
Here at Collegiate, we have been busy putting together a series of student advice articles designed to help you through some of the trickier aspects of being away at university. In addition to providing some of the best luxury student accommodation you will find in Spain, these guides aim to give you that little bit of extra support.
Decorate your room like home
The best way to help with the homesick blues is to make your new bedroom as similar to your one at home as possible. Although it may never feel truly like home, these little similarities could go a long way to creating a home away from home and keeping you chipper when or if the going gets tough.
Our student residences such as Collegiate Marina Real in Valencia are luxuriously designed and have been created with the sophisticated modern student in mind, but the following touches are sure to raise spirits when you’re feeling lonely.
Bedding
One of the things you are most likely to miss from home, is your bed. Let’s face it, we all spend a long time there and students probably more than most, so ensuring that your bedding is as similar as possible to what you have at home can be a massive win. You could even go a step further by taking your bedding to university with you, just be sure it isn’t covered in your favourite Disney character or you could be left red-faced when your housemates pop in for a chat!
Getting your bedding right at university is the first step to creating a home away from home, as the smell and comfort could take you where you need to be when you are homesick. This can be particularly useful when you’re hungover too, as this tends to be when you end up feeling lonely.
Photographs
As obvious as it may sound, there is no shame whatsoever in taking photographs of your family and loved ones to university with you. Place them around your new bedroom at strategic locations, these can really help you to create an environment you can call home. This one should be approached with caution though, as too many photographs could remind you of home a little too much and could even make your homesickness worse.
However, a few photos of the people who make you happiest in life are more than reasonable and will give you a little boost when you start feeling lonely at university.
Don’t hide yourself away
A key thing to remember when feeling homesick, is not to hide yourself away in your room too much. You have of course gone to a lot of trouble decorating and accessorising your bedroom to remind you of home, but spending days on end cooped up in there because you are feeling blue will probably be counterproductive. You could end up getting sick of looking at the same four walls and the best idea if you are feeling lonely, is to get out and about and surround yourself with people.
By doing this, you may well find that you appreciate your home away from home that little bit more when you come back from a day on campus or a night out with your mates. You probably wouldn’t spend that much time in your room back home, so try not to at university even if you’re feeling particularly homesick.
Finally, just try to stay positive when you’re feeling homesick. It will often pass quicker than you think and with so much to get up to when away at university in Spain, staying active and with a positive mindset is nearly always the solution.
These tips should help you to create a homely atmosphere at university which can really help when you’re in the middle of a gruelling term at university. Another key decision is of course to choose luxury student accommodation when away from home, having all the facilities you need and in a smart and sophisticated environment can make all the difference. Be sure to take a look at what we have available here at Collegiate by clicking here.
