Right, so here we are. Been about a month or whatever since sorting and October’s right around the corner, innit? Which means we’re at that magical time of year when we all start to feel that uncomfortable weight in our guts, and not the kind that means you gotta visit the loo.
Sure, us old people have done this billions of times before. Pack bags. Ride train. Watch sorting. Catch up. Settle in. Classes and classes and more bloody classes! It’s the same every year and you’d think we’d all be plenty used to it or desensitised to it by now but nope! We’re not.
Sure, we think we are. Lie and tell ourselves we are. And after a few weeks of getting into the rhythm of classes, maybe we even truly believe we’re good. The reality of it’s that the first few weeks are just too busy for us to think about anything more than what’s in front of us.
One day you’re in class daydreaming and notice the professor has the same colour hair as your mum, or someone bungles a potion and it smells just like your dad’s home cooking, and BAM! You’re smacked right in the face with that particularly specific type of nostalgia that makes you feel all heavy and weird and can only mean one thing…
Homesickness!
I’ve been doing this for 7 bloody years now and guess what? I still get homesick right around this time of year too. Just don’t bloody tell no one… I’ve got my street cred to maintain and all that, yeah?
Right, so, homesickness. It sucks but what can we do about it? A couple of things actually!
Reckon it’s a little late now, but first piece of advice is you gotta bring something with you to remind you of home. Could be an old photo or your teddy bear or a record of your dad’s favourite tunes. Don’t matter what it is, the important thing is that you find it and bring it and, most importantly, spend time with that thing. Actually stop and look at that photo or hang out with your stuffed bear or listen to that album on repeat if you gotta.
Here’s the tricky part, though. It’s gonna suck real bad at first.
You turn that song on and you’re reminded of your dad and suddenly you feel so much bloody worse because you’re here at Hogwarts and not back home but you gotta close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to just… let it be.
Because when the night is cloudy there’s still a light that shines on me. Shining till tomorrow, let it be.
In other words, that nasty painful bit fades away and you’re just left with those pleasant memories and happy thoughts. Might take longer to fade for some of us than others but that’s why we’ve got multiple weapons to fight our battle against homesickness!
So what if you DIDN’T bring anything from home with you?
That’s no problem, yeah? You just gotta FIND something to remind you of home. You got a big oak tree out in your garden at home? Go hang out with an oak tree out on the grounds. Your family eats treacle tart for breakfast every Sunday? Well go owl up La Porte Rouge and see if they can send you some. Or even better yet, go ask your family to send you some themselves and go have yourself a nice picnic with it on Sunday mornings so you can be with them in spirit, since you can’t in person.
What else can you do?
Right, well aside from stuff that reminds you of home, you gotta lean on your mates for some help. Don’t have any mates? Go find some! Or, bloody hell, come find me and I’ll be your mate. Whatever, just find your people to talk to and don’t be afraid to be honest about what you’re feeling. Actually talk to them about homesickness and whatever because, chances are, they’re dealing with something similar. I know, I know, getting all honest about the touchy feely emotional junk is awful but it’s not good to bottle it all up, yeah? Just give it a try sometime, it’s not THAT bad, I promise.
Next thing you gotta do is owl home. Do it every bloody day if you’ve got to. The owls here know how to get to even the most muggliest of muggle households so you’ve got no excuse. Write home and tell your family what you’ve been up to. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All of it. They wanna hear from you and know what’s going on just as much as you want to hear from them so do it, already. Personally, I go owl them once a week on Sundays but sometimes it’s every other bloody day, just depending how I’m feeling.
Then the last bit of advice I’ve got for you is to go blow off some steam. Whatever your way of doing that is, I mean. Some of us go for long jogs around the grounds, others go smash some bludgers on the pitch, and others go kickboxing. Dunno where the exercise equipment’s stuffed these days but whatever, doesn’t matter. Just go kick some trees or do parkour across the bloody rooftops if that’s your thing [editor’s note: just don’t get caught]. Whatever works for you.
Or if you’re less about the physical activities, maybe go blow off some mental steam. If you’re a nerd, I’ve heard there’s a book or two in the library you can dive into for a bit. Or go wail on a guitar or violin or a piano or a bloody flugelhorn if that’s what you’re about. Me personally? I paint whenever I get the chance but if you’re no artist just go all Jackson Pollock and show that canvas who’s boss! Just lay a tarp down or do it outside or something so you don’t drive Miss J to madness, yeah?
Right, so that’s just a few of the ways you can fight back against that bloody homesickness but really the options are infinite. Maybe you’ve got it all sorted out and don’t need me telling you how to live your life but if none of the above works for you, maybe check with your prefects or peers and see how they fight back against the woes of homesickness.
If you give it a try, I promise that you’ll find something that works for you. Pinky Promise.
