Between Two Worlds: Navigating Nostalgia

You just got back from your exchange year? I bet it was the most amazing trip you've had. Made new friends and met new people and made life-long connections. You had the time of your life abroad and it broadened your horizons and learned a lot, not just about the culture but about yourself as well!! But now what? Something feels amiss. You felt this before, at the beginning of your exchange year but it slowly dissipated as the year continued. Many exchange students may feel a sense of nostalgia or longing for the life they had back home during their exchange year, however, here you are back home feeling the same way.

Missing your friends and host family, the environment you used to live in, your expectations and rules, the activities you would do with your friends or by yourself that brought you comfort. Feeling as if your life is put on pause and you're missing out on so much happening back home. It's normal to miss this part of your life, you had a second home with its own special memories and relationships, an entirely new life! Who wouldn't miss that? 

It's normal to miss your friends and host-family from your exchange year. You may feel as if this connection has been severed, that you will never be as close as you were with them, or maybe never see them again. However this outcome is all up to you, the only way to keep your connections from your exchange year is to continue to talk with them and stay close. This was the same thing you did on your exchange year with your friends and family back home. This doesn't mean that you should be talking with them on a daily basis but stay in touch, wish them a happy birthday or happy holidays. Let them in on your big accomplishments, but you don't need a reason to text them. If you want to then do it! 

However, you shouldn't forget that your friends and family in your home country have changed and grown in the past year as well. Friends more than family but your life just won't go immediately to being “normal” like it used to be. But as you did in your host country, you'll need to adapt to your home country as well. “You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.” - Miriam Adeney