Homesickness is a feeling familiar to immigrants. Some have it stronger, some weaker, but, according to psychologists, everyone who has left their homeland goes through it.
Why is this happening? We leave for opportunities, achievements and a better life. We are happy that our children will get a good education, find excellent jobs, and be able to do what they love. But still, sometimes we want so much to return to our childhood, to walk along familiar streets or at least to stop feeling lonely.
In our homeland we are our own
Psychologists explain it this way: in the process of adaptation immigrants seem to lose their role, as they have to start their life anew, from scratch. In the homeland everything was clear and understandable, close and familiar. But in another country there is no basic sense of security. Everything is incomprehensible, unfamiliar, alien, and sometimes there is a feeling of inferiority. And so instinctively one wants to go back to the homeland, where "everything is simple and familiar, for a day".
Childhood experiences are the strongest
The first years of a child's life have a very important impact on him or her. One mother told a story: "When I saw harbor and shipbuilding cranes in the port of Savannah, I would swoon in admiration and remember Russia. I searched for a long time for the reason, until one day my father told me that when I was little he often took me on a picnic to the Yenisei River, where similar cranes stood. I was not even 3 years old at the time, but I remembered it!
We unwittingly absorb everything around us. That's how the brain and psyche works. And when we immigrate to Canada or the USA, the memories are not erased. They continue to live inside, sometimes stirring the soul.
And we miss our homeland. The feelings we had back then. The memories, the places, the smells, the impressions. And we will always miss it.
