Hey guys!
So, a friend and classmate of mine, Olivia, has been generous enough to write and share her going home/being home story with us! What a treat! So without further to do...here's her story!
Hello my name is Olivia Neumark and I am a German American freshman at Jacobs university.
Home can be a very tricky concept especially when you start to grow up and leave your parents. I have been fortunate enough to have lived in two countries during my life so far, and to be going to university in one of the countries that I consider home. Most of my extended family lives within less than an hour from me from my campus. This is really amazing as when I live in the US we aren’t even in the same time zone. I love being this close to my family and being able to see them and spend more time with them. With this being said, I was still very far away from my parents and friends that I had in the USA.
When this global pandemic started, I was concerned and worried especially after Trump made some statements that weren’t really clear. I started to think that I wanted to go “home”. I think for me the reason why I thought of my US house as home is because it is somewhere that I know I have a routine and my own space, and where I would be guaranteed interaction with my parents. To me that was a major deciding factor as I knew most of my friends from university would be going back to their houses. I also witnessed friends not being able to go back to their home countries, and wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen to me.
This decision was very hard especially as I consider both the USA and Germany my home. I believe that if I had a house in Germany, or if my cousins weren’t sick, I would have stayed in Germany. In reality the main reason why I came back to the USA is because of space and ease.
And while I am happy to be back “home” there are some issues. After living and governing myself and my space it is very odd coming somewhere and needing to adjust to different rules and behaviors. Not only this but in living in a house rather than a dorm room it is very easy to drive each other crazy and step on others toes. Trying to stay busy and keep peace and harmony within a household is very challenging especially for college students returning home. I need to adjust to my parent’s schedule and way of living. This includes doing chores in a timely manor and keeping up with their busy lives. While we may have gotten in a few tiffs its not that bad.
It is also really hard to keep up with school work while being here. Being nine hours behind makes it really hard to be a part of class and discussions, and online lecture are no where near as helpful or interesting as face to face classes. This is a big stress factor for me, as there is a lot of other things on my mind (I know three people who’ve died so far due to the virus) and keeping up with school work and trying to prepare for finals is hard.
One plus side to being home is having the amenities that I didn’t have in Germany (Ex: bike, car, paddle board…) not only this but I get to see my old friends which is really nice. We’re able to go on walks and bike rides, garden and just hang out (all within social distancing guidelines and always with just one other person).
All in all, I would have to say that it’s really nice to be home, but I miss Germany and can’t believe I’ll be gone for almost five months.