I think that homesickness is a strong word.
At it's mildest you have just moved to your first own home/ to a new home and live not too far from your parent(s). But at it's worst you are as far away from home as it is physically possible and you miss your home.
Lets think about the meaning of some words first.
Homesickness.
In english the word includes two independent words; home and sickness. We will get to the home part later on, but why use the word sickness?
Homesickness means that you miss your home, so does that mean that when you miss somebody or something you are actually sick? No. Yes. I am not native english speaker so I can't really say why they have chosen to use that word, but I can still wonder right?
In finnish homesickness translates to koti-ikävä where koti is home and ikävä, well it translates to many things (check here if you are interested) but in this case we'll use longing, which in my opinion serves better for it's meaning.
In italy homesickness translates to nostalgia which is also a synonym in english to nostalgia, longing and yearning, so it makes sense to me.
Home.
People say that home is where your heart is. Some people might have many homes where they have left a piece of their heart.
I have many homes too; my childhood home on Laurilankatu, my fathers new home, my mothers new home, my mothers mothers home in Helsinki where we spend many summers with my sister, my host family's home in Italy... then there is also people like my mom, dad, sister, Noora (R.I.P.), my ex, my best friends... whoa...I can tell that it's been a long longing, and me only being 22 years old I know it's gonna grow even longer.
Mostly I thing homesickness being missing the good times, memories, places and people when/with who one truly felt happy in ones heart. Still first thing that usually comes ones mind when talking about home is a house that means a lot to you and you felt happiest, but it's hard to explain what and why a house is home; one just feels it in ones heart.
I'm writing now about this subject cause for the last 2 months that I have been living in Crete cause of my job as an au pair, I have felt homesickness like never before. I am not saying that this job, family and place sucks, not at all!
I like my job, it's challenging, but still gives me enough freedom; I like this family that I'm living in, they are very welcoming; and I like this place that we are living in, it has it's own peace and it's easy to the city of Rethymno where is people.
First time when I felt homesickness was when I went to Kuusamo with my best friend and her family when I was about 12. It just came once one evening when we went to sleep like a tsunami, I cried a little and after i was fine.
Then when I first moved to my own to Kauhajoki, 60 km from Seinäjoki, the first 2-3 months I felt homesickness every time I was in my apartment, but after that my heart settled in and the next 2 years i stayed there on/off.
Last year I didn't miss home at all, unless you count the few times i had a row with my friends and I started missing my friends in Finland whom I never have a row. I think because it was my first long time living abroad, so I didn't have time to think home and after awhile my heart had settled in.
They do say that it takes 2 months to make a home so I'm keeping my fingers cross that these tsunamis of homesickness have calmed down to casual waves. I believe me missing home more this year that last year is because living abroad isn't a new thing; mainly vise versa! I had already got to use to living in Italy where I could speak the language, had friends and I had my own life. Here I can't speak the language, I hardly know many people and even tough I have my hobbies I'm still forming my life here; and all this I already did in Italy, which is why I miss Italy as much I miss my home in Finland.
But still end of the day I wouldn't change a day in my life (fine maybe couple I could forget), cause who I am right now is cause of all those good and bad days in my life; and I love me!
Loving and longing, Salla
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