I'm feeling so homesick today.
A love letter to forever being homesick, the moments we miss while we build a life that only we know how much we sacrifice for.
Please, allow this music to soak into your mind while you read some words of mine.
There is so much that isn’t spoken about, the memories you leave behind when living abroad—the moments you will always miss, and how you feel like you’re missing out on another part of your life.
One day, you’re living your life and enjoying your routine in this new place you call home. The next day, you feel extremely homesick, missing the sounds and smells that only your home country can offer. Suddenly, you find yourself missing the laughs and random moments with friends in a corner that doesn’t offer much comfort, yet it accommodates you all, and a lovely moment is spent with people you love.
This is my letter to forever being homesick—a feeling that never really goes away, but you just learn how to live with it. It becomes a new skill, knowing how to hide it so well. The constant battle of missing your forever home while building your new life, yet you don’t know its length.
But why do you miss home so much?
Oh Dear, where do I even start? There are just things about home that you can’t explain.
But let me start by saying it’s the people. The warmth of their hug is unique, how much they care for you without even talking. “Just come over for some food,” that is how they show their love—over a plate of food that they offer you, which serves as comfort.
The food, its flavors, make you feel instantly so happy and more like yourself. Your mom wakes up early and prepares your comfort food because she has noticed you are not smiling enough that day. And that completely makes your day.
The warmth of the sun and its ocean breeze, when all you need is to get together with some friends and go to the beach. Bathing under that golden African sun feels like a hug. The street vendors bring you their food, made in their homes, hoping that someone will eat it. And indeed, we eat these street foods under the boiling sun with a stamped smile on our faces.
And this summarizes a bit of why I miss home so much—things you really can’t explain unless you feel it.
Home is where my soul belongs, so my heart will forever crave its warmth.
By Tomazia B (me).
Finding home everywhere I go
Now, in this dearly present moment, I find home everywhere I go—almost like you must build a safe space for yourself to fall back on and feel at least a little bit at home. That’s what Hawaii and Puerto Rico feel like to me.
The warmth, the salty water, the people and the culture—it reminds me so much of home that it comforts my heart. And that’s just how life abroad is: you pick up little pieces that help you feel more like yourself.
The biggest battle is often dreaming of who I was back home and who I am now. It feels like the old me is still there, waiting for me to return… and I miss her. I miss her energy. But it all makes sense—people here in my new home will never get to see who I am when I’m in my home country. And that’s something that quietly eats at you… but you learn how to live with it.
If someone you know has moved abroad, to a whole new country, please hug them hard. They go through so many emotions every single day—more than you can imagine.
I’m always homesick, I just hide it better.
Them:
Does it ever go away?
Me:
Not really.
You just start focusing on the life you’re trying to build, you tell yourself the sacrifices will be worth it. And then one day your friends are all hanging out back home…without you. And it hits you again —“I’m missing out on moments.”
You start to realize how much you’ll miss: family gatherings, weddings, birthdays, just being there. And you feel that quiet sadness of being far away from home.
But time passes. You get better at hiding it, better at moving forward, you turn that pain into motivation. You remind yourself how far you’ve come, and that you have to keep going.
Because the sacrifices…only you truly understand why they were made.
A love letter to forever being home sick.