Homesickness runs in the family
It happened last night, the dreaded phone call from the child who is 1,200 miles away bawling...1,200, twelve HUNDRED, I google map'd it so I know she is One Thousand Two Hundred miles away...FREAK OUT! She is having a major melt down right now and it's still 2 more days until the get to Grandma's house. I debated having my mom drive and get her but that would take a total of 20 hours of driving, not including stops and really she would be there by then anyway. I told Chris last night that I was glad we don't have any money because I would have been on a Red Eye to New Mexico picking her up. She will be fine, she will be fine, she will be fine, that is my mantra for the next 2 days.
I have to admit that homesickness runs in our family. I was a major homesicky. We are talkin' M-A-J-O-R. The first time I left home was Girl Scout Camp, it was only for 5ish days and I puked the whole time. I spent the whole week in bed, cried myself to sleep every night and basically made myself miserable. The next time I was homesick was at 6th grade camp. They sent us to the mountains for a week, and it was HE!!. I sprained my ankle the first day and was on crutches the rest of the time. I had to sleep in the infirmary that had no shower! I looked like a wreck, and to top it all off our class and another 6th grade class from another school had been writing to each other for a few weeks. Every child in our class got a pen pal from the other class, and my pen pal was the cutest boy in BOTH schools, big freakin' deal when you are on crutches and your hair is so greasy from not washing that you look like well a big pile of...we'll keep this G rated! While all my friends were crying on the last day because they were going to miss their new friends, and counselors, I was grinning from ear to ear because I was going home!
Fast forward to EFY, luckily EFY was one of the best experiences of my life! I was not homesick at all, I even was sad to go back home, my friends forced me to call my parents half way through the week because they knew my mom would want to check on me, but I knew if I talked too long I would start to cry. So basically all my mom got was "Yeah, I'm good, things are fun, talk to you later".
Fast forward a couple more years to college, well we won't even go there because that is a HUGE family secret that will go with me to the grave. Seriously mom if you spill the beans that cute homesick girl who is on her way to your house will make a detour back to Illinois!! No it's not that bad just a little-bit-o-lotta embarrassing.
Basically what I am trying to say is up until the time I moved to Illinois I have been no more than 2 hour from my family. Just enough distance to have distance, but not too much that I couldn't run home at the drop of a hat. That being said, I think K is doing great. She was fine until last night, so that's a week before she really started feeling sad. She's already doing better than I EVER did. She's also going to be gone a lot longer than I ever was. Chris keeps telling me that she will be stronger for this experience, and will ultimately end up having a great memory of the trip.
Hopefully once she reaches my mom's house she will be better, and now that her trip is extended until sometime in August when she'll be with Chris' mom in Utah hopefully she will be fine there too. Until then I will continue my mantra, she will be fine, she will be fine, over and over again.
I have to admit that homesickness runs in our family. I was a major homesicky. We are talkin' M-A-J-O-R. The first time I left home was Girl Scout Camp, it was only for 5ish days and I puked the whole time. I spent the whole week in bed, cried myself to sleep every night and basically made myself miserable. The next time I was homesick was at 6th grade camp. They sent us to the mountains for a week, and it was HE!!. I sprained my ankle the first day and was on crutches the rest of the time. I had to sleep in the infirmary that had no shower! I looked like a wreck, and to top it all off our class and another 6th grade class from another school had been writing to each other for a few weeks. Every child in our class got a pen pal from the other class, and my pen pal was the cutest boy in BOTH schools, big freakin' deal when you are on crutches and your hair is so greasy from not washing that you look like well a big pile of...we'll keep this G rated! While all my friends were crying on the last day because they were going to miss their new friends, and counselors, I was grinning from ear to ear because I was going home!
Fast forward to EFY, luckily EFY was one of the best experiences of my life! I was not homesick at all, I even was sad to go back home, my friends forced me to call my parents half way through the week because they knew my mom would want to check on me, but I knew if I talked too long I would start to cry. So basically all my mom got was "Yeah, I'm good, things are fun, talk to you later".
Fast forward a couple more years to college, well we won't even go there because that is a HUGE family secret that will go with me to the grave. Seriously mom if you spill the beans that cute homesick girl who is on her way to your house will make a detour back to Illinois!! No it's not that bad just a little-bit-o-lotta embarrassing.
Basically what I am trying to say is up until the time I moved to Illinois I have been no more than 2 hour from my family. Just enough distance to have distance, but not too much that I couldn't run home at the drop of a hat. That being said, I think K is doing great. She was fine until last night, so that's a week before she really started feeling sad. She's already doing better than I EVER did. She's also going to be gone a lot longer than I ever was. Chris keeps telling me that she will be stronger for this experience, and will ultimately end up having a great memory of the trip.
Hopefully once she reaches my mom's house she will be better, and now that her trip is extended until sometime in August when she'll be with Chris' mom in Utah hopefully she will be fine there too. Until then I will continue my mantra, she will be fine, she will be fine, over and over again.
Comments