My family recently moved to Pennsylvania after living in Queens for over 15 years. So I also had to move to a house near campus since I used to commute. All of this in just a few weeks-I didn't have time to mentally process everything. Quite frankly, I was thrilled with my newfound freedom. I could finally blast music, clean whenever I wanted, and invite friends.

As time passed, all of those things became normal and I found myself missing my family a lot. Moving out seems really easy until piles of clothes lay around for weeks, dishes don't wash themselves, water bottles are scattered, and you've been taking out too many times because cooking consumes too much time. I missed coming home to the aroma of my mom's traditional Indian dishes, a tidy house, and serenity of siblings being next door. Sure there are pros and cons to moving out and staying with family, but I realized I needed to just grow up and manage myself.

It's important to have a middle ground so you don't feel homesick. What I mean by this is, for example, learning to cook some of your mom's dishes to remind you of her love and visiting home at least twice a month. I've also started to preoccupy myself with other things such as developing new hobbies like painting.

This has just been a journey of learning to be an adult. And although I'm still working on it, my advice for anyone dealing with homesickness is to just have a balance between your parent's home and new home. Incorporate some aspects of your childhood home such as food and decor to remind you of your origins and family, while also accepting the reality that we're all getting older by the day and need to be our own adults.