Homesickness. If you traveled abroad at least once before, then you definitely know how it feels. If not, and you are planning to study abroad in the near future, then this is something you must be ready to face – and overcome.
Basically, homesickness is the feeling of anxiety and loneliness when you are being away from home. Being pulled out of your usual ‘nest’ and thrown into an entirely new culture, forced to communicate only in a tongue not your own, is a radical change that gives rise to those negative feelings. Sooner or later, you will begin to miss everything back at your home country (your bed, your family, your country food, etc.). Eventually, you will become homesick, and the exciting journey of studying abroad that you always looked forward to becomes a gloomy nightmare you wish would end as fast as possible.
At boarding school, it’s all the same. You will have to live among total strangers and adapt to a completely new system, all the while trying to shut oppressing thoughts about returning home out of your mind. It won’t be as difficult as living abroad, though, since you won’t be as far away from home as you would be staying in another country. Also, you will be able to return home on a regular basis (like on weekends).
The good news is that homesickness just wears away with time. Becoming more and more busy with school life, making new friends, and engaging in different activities will all eventually transform the new place into your second home. As a result, a kind of ‘tolerance’ builds up in students who attend boarding school, and they get used to living independently and adapting to new conditions. Furthermore, students will go through a huge personal and educational growth. For example, due to the small class sizes in boarding schools, stronger bonds will form between students and their teachers, and there will be more individualized attention. In addition, being immersed in a community full of diverse personalities allows students to interact with the thinker and the doer; the nerd and the athlete; the math guy and the science guy. This greatly helps students achieve the social skill necessary for their college life and future careers.
Therefore, boarding schools are a valuable warm-up for college life abroad, as students will feel much more at ease and mentally prepared for their new academic life hundreds of miles away from home.
Link To Article: https://youth-journal.org/how-boarding-schools-prepare-students-for-studying-abroad
