Paper #1 rough draft

Maddie Mardesen

Fundamentals of Journalism for Print and Web

Professor Fuglsang

9 September 2009

There is No Place like Home

According to The Exponent, Purdue University’s online newspaper, one-third of college students experience homesickness. This statistic may startle some individuals, but the reality is that homesickness can be a very common predicament faced by today’s college students. The transition from living at home to living on your own can be very daunting. With Mom no longer there to do laundry, cook meals, or remind students to brush their teeth and do homework, college life can seem an impossibly hard adjustment.

Homesickness is a very common condition that affects students; in fact, many expect to get homesick when they head to school. “Homesickness is a problem we see at the beginning of a new semester,” states Carrigan Monetti, and Psychology resident at the Purdue Student Health Center. This is not surprising considering homesickness usually develops when individuals are removed for the familiar and surrounded by change and new experiences. Furthermore, first-year students are not the only ones experiencing homesickness.

With the development of so many new social networking sites like, Facebook, keeping in touch of family should make the transition easier. Conversely, State Press Online, the newspaper of Arizona State, mentions that such sites could actually contribute to homesickness. Because students have such availability to keep in touch with their home-life, they may be constantly reminded of what is going on at home and feel it is a better place to be. This does not occur with every homesick student. Many have found a balance between home life and college life via the internet.

Homesickness is a condition that should not be taken lightly. Studies suggest that it can trigger other conditions such as depression, anxiety, and mood swings. With this condition affecting so many, what can be done to treat the condition? Essorment.com provides a list of ways to combat homesickness. Get involved on campus: this is a great way to meet friends and become more comfortable with the surroundings. Do something you enjoy: this will keep your mind off home and make college feel more like home. Set goals: by making a plan of what to achieve for the semester, it can be become easier to adjust to staying on campus. Keep in touch with family: this is an obvious remedy to nearby students, but may be impossible for some; moreover, visiting home each weekend should not become a habit. State Press Online states that often times students who go home each weekend miss making friends and becoming more involved on campus. Other remedies include writing in a journal, volunteering, visiting new places, and visiting friends.

Millions of helpful hints for defeating homesickness are out there. The bottom line is that this condition is different for everyone. Some students may become homesick the second their parents leave campus. Others may take months before they feel the pangs of missing home. The Daily Online, the newspaper of the University of Washington says that many students are reminded of home in mundane ways: such as foods reminding them of home, television shows that they used to watch with family, or even familiar names or faces. Despite the many options of curing homesickness, the best option may be just to try to ignore it. According to The Daily Online, “Being homesick is like having a hangover; you have to muddle through it until it goes away.”

http://dailyuw.com/2006/9/25/homsickness-the-dorothy-syndrome/

http://www.statpress.com/node/6890

http://www.purdueexponent.org/?module=article&story_id=11634

http://www.essortment.com/all/collegestudent_phu.htm

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