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Guest Post: Homesickness (by Kerri)

She’s been on the road for over 6 months – but Kerri’s mind still wanders back to her home town in Scotland.

So she’s tackling the backpackers taboo subject of Homesickness – a word of advice and reassurance for anyone on the road or people worried about leaving home on an epic adventure…

Leaving Home

Homesickness, no matter where you are or how long you’ve been away from home is never a nice feeling.

I think the only other time I’ve had homesickness was when I was away on a Brownie trip for no longer than a weekend! I was only around 10 years of age, but it wasn’t something I wanted on my trip, and it’s always stuck in my mind as one of those random memories your brain chooses to store away for old times’ sake!!

For all the time since then, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced homesickness. I studied at college for 3 years, and didn’t live in any halls of residence or similar during those years. And I think it’s safe to say I’ve never lived from home for longer than 2 weeks… if that!

So coming all the way out to Australia for a whole year was gonna be tricky. I didn’t think I’d miss home that much cause there was so many things I wanted to do out there, therefore, plenty to keep my mind off home!

Arriving in Oz

However, within the first month, thanks to a spontaneous trip up to Brisbane from Melbourne I was homesick for an entire week. I felt horrible. I didn’t know what to do with myself, and being stuck in a city that I didn’t know, I felt totally lost. Of course, you might be thinking; why didn’t she just go out and explore? Well, the truth was, I didn’t want too, I just wanted to have that feeling of being at home with all my home comforts, you know? Not even for that long, just enough so I could feel whole again and relaxed.

I didn’t dare call home though, cause I knew I’d just want to cry, which I figured would just worry my poor mum too much!! Don’t need more of us worrying!!

So I just moped around, and felt sorry for myself… for a whole week. How pathetic!!

Thankfully though after the week was out, and not knowing what else to do, I flew back to Melbourne, which turned out to be the best option for me. Cause, within a week, I met new people and had a whole bunch of new plans set out for the next couple of months. Yay!!

Homesickness was out the window!!

Unfortunately, the nasty beast has returned on many occasion since then. I’ve often found myself feeling really low and not knowing what to do with myself, and after much confusion, I realize I’m just thinking of home…

The second part  of this article can be found by clicking HERE