No one person is safe from homesickness. A person can be having the time of his or her life one night. Then, a split second later, he or she wants nothing more than a Runza sandwich and a hug from his or her mother.
My first signs of homesickness came as I was walking back from the big box store. Jolly as I could be, I was clinching the world’s most delicious chocolate bar and thinking about all the wonderful opportunities I have coming in the next few weeks. Then, I saw her: my high school math teacher as she stepped into her car. A few minutes later, I saw a friend walking a dog. Finally, I see one of my coworkers reading a newspaper. As I would step closer and closer to each of these individuals, excited to make conversation, I would just as suddenly realize how impossible it was that these people were gallivanting around the Czech Republic. As I arrived back to my empty dorm room, I realize how much I miss the life I left behind.
To be able to take part in a study abroad experience is one of the greatest opportunities any person can be afforded. The participant is literally taking on the world, and no person can come back the same. This fact has made me feel guiltier and guiltier about my growing desire to step back into the “Cornhusker State.” However, at this particular moment, nothing in the world sounds greater than a glass of ice tea with extra ice, a prime rib dinner, and the company of my closest friends and family. Honestly, I would settle for the tiniest taste of stable Hastings in the chaos that is the rest of the world. Dorothy said it best, “There is no place like home.”
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