I probably just have a case of garden variety homesickness. I have all the clear cut and obvious symptoms- depression, loneliness, sadness and an overwhelming urge to cry and buy a plane ticket home every few minutes. And the list I swear I'm not building in my head about ways home is superior to the new life just keeps getting longer and longer.
I'm just going to cave in for a few minutes and list a few of the little things I miss about home.
1. Hearing the Netherlands Carillon Bell every hour when I lived in Arlington. I loved sleeping with my window open at night and hearing the bells toll and "Taps" play at 10 pm at Ft Myer. Something about it made me feel intrinsically a part of Washington, DC in a way I can't explain.
2. Walking to the Iwo Jima Memorial and sitting on the grass, just listening to a bell tower performance or the Marine Band play while looking over DC.
3. Anything and everything I could walk to in Arlington. I especially miss being able to walk to Court House or Clarendon for dinner and window shopping or a movie. I miss the almost-city life so much it hurts.
4. Just knowing where things are. Not having to question the directions every time I go somewhere.
5. Tysons Corner Mall and Georgetown. REAL shopping.
6. Driving up and down the GW Parkway. Especially when the leaves change in the fall.
7. Ambition and meeting people with amazing ambition. Hearing someone tell you about their huge plans for the future and believing that that person could possibly achieve it.
8. Seeing the monuments on my way to work every day.
9. Seeing the crew and row teams out on the Potomac every day.
10. Getting stuck in traffic as a motorcade goes by. And leaning out the window to see which flags are on the motorcade, or to count the number of Secret Service SUV's to figure out who the motorcade is for.
11. Diplomat tags. I used to have a guide pamphlet that would tell you how to figure out which country a diplomat was from and whether or not it was a family member, staff member, actual VIP, etc just from the license plate.
12. Local news shows that actually sounded educated.
13. Discussing current events and politics with people who got their information from first-hand sources and didn't get their news from the SL Tribune.
14. The FDR Monument at night.
The list could go on. I haven't even touched restaurants or actual people. That list may never end!!
Does anyone know a quick and easy remedy for homesickness? Is there a pill you can take? A call you can make? A comfort food perhaps? I'm willing to try almost anything at this point to make it go away. I've been trying to kill it off with Death by Chocolate, but it's not working.
The only cure I know is to stay so busy that you collapse with exhaustion every night, leaving you no time to think about home. It's a great short-term solution.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I think the long-term solution is a bit more bleak. I was the same way when I first went away to college and it took me more than six months to get over it. I just wallowed in it sometimes. The episodes of homesickness became less and less frequent until one day I realized I hadn't felt it in several weeks.
I still get the occasional pang of homesickness and I left "home" 10 years ago. I think it's just part of our nature to want to be where we come from and with our families and friends.
It will get better, I promise!
Being homesick just goes with the territory of living across country from where you grew up. Just keep yourself busy, and don't give yourself time to get melancholy and sad. Live in the now.
ReplyDeletePray
ReplyDeleteI'd say go to Vegas, but didn't you just do that? That's what I do when I miss "home" (Europe). But then again, they have yet to make a DC-themed hotel...
ReplyDeleteThat's why we are going for a weekend - just to breathe in Virginia. Although I am afraid things will have changed so much it will freak me out.
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