Every time I come home from college I somehow end up
watching old Disney and Nickelodeon shows with my sister. Seriously, we could
be doing anything instead of this, and here we are watching reruns of “Victorious” until 1 in the
morning. I could write a five paragraph essay of things I would probably think
of doing before that. But, in that moment, I want to. Because I’m home again
and I’m feeling nostalgic. Why do college students feel so nostalgic at home?
Commonly, people feel nostalgia when they’re lonely, and
feeling those happy feelings of the past is a sort of defense mechanism. It
helps to cope with the loneliness. Studies also show that anxious people feel
nostalgia more often. So nostalgia is basically protection against sadness and
nervousness. Another study also demonstrated that nostalgia can make people
feel more optimistic about the future. So nostalgia helps with the present and
the future.
Now, in my experience, college students tend to be stressed
a lot. (If your experience was different, contact me and tell me your secret
because I want it.) But even so, at home those feelings should be alleviated.
So it probably isn’t the anxiety.
That leaves the loneliness. Having talked to several of my
friends about differences between home and college life, there are definitely
less people around at home than at school. At school, you live with your
friends. At home, you have to actually get into a car and drive to their house.
So there are more opportunities for loneliness at home.
You do miss your college friends at home. But at school you
also miss your high school friends. So you really can’t win here. (I do get
nostalgic for high school friends sometimes, but that is most always caused by
loneliness instead of anything else.)
It’s also being surrounded by part of your life that you
have effectively broken off from. It’s like going back to your preschool, you
aren’t a part of it anymore, but you’re still there. They have this whole
ceremony of sending you off to your dorm room to mark it too. The whole thing
feels a little surreal afterwards.
I guess that’s the real reason why we end up staying up so
late watching old shows, we want it to feel like high school again. Everything
else after all is still the same, we’re the only ones that have changed. We just want
to feel like we belong here again.
Coming home from college is hard, you realize you have a
family again that nags you. It’s quite a game changer. There are big changes
involved that you don’t necessarily realize at the time. But then you’re back
at school and it’s all good again. Well, mostly.
Sources for my science-y paragraph
No comments:
Post a Comment