Homesickness

Homesickness is a funny beast that comes and goes as it pleases- often coming during the most stressful weeks at work and going whenever a polar vortex hits Michigan.  The past week has been incredibly stressful work wise, and like everyone when things get stressful, it makes me want to escape. Except I don't want to escape to a tropical beach. I want to escape to my sister's large plush L shaped couch in Grand Rapids, with her across from me, a blanket on my lap, and a cup of tea in my hand. No, make that a glass of Malbec.  

I always assumed that homesickness would get better over time, but I was dead wrong. Every year it comes more often, stays longer, and hits deeper. Every year the things that bother you about a job or a host country or a situation get a little harder to swallow. I know that this week and these moments will pass, that things will get better and the crabbiness will subside, that I will remember that 14 degrees Fahrenheit is actually really cold and stop craving Michigan so badly, but until then it just hurts. 

Homesickness is an illness for which there is no cure. No bowl of ice cream or glass of wine or Skype chat will ever allow my heart to be in all the places it wants to be at once. No airplane can actually take my heart home. So I turn the AC a few degrees lower, pull the blanket up under my chin, and go to bed early. Because some days are just like that. Even in "Australia".