Tuesday, March 18, 2008
On being homesick 
"Homesickness is just a state of mind for me. I'm always missing someone or someplace or something, I'm always trying to get back to some imaginary somewhere. My life has been one long longing."
- An excerpt from "Prozac Nation" by Elizabeth Wurtzel
Sometimes my students ask me about Singapore and I am always happy to oblige.
But once in a while it hits me how far away I am, how divorced I am from the everyday ongoings in the lives of my family and friends back home, and I find myself homesick.
It's hard to explain.
It's not the crippling type of homesickness that prevents me from enjoying my life here- on the contrary, I love what Tokyo has brought me and what it has to offer.
Perhaps it is that so much of what had been commonplace in Singapore now feels like a distant memory, and I am afraid of forgetting, of losing my roots.
But once in a while it hits me how far away I am, how divorced I am from the everyday ongoings in the lives of my family and friends back home, and I find myself homesick.
It's hard to explain.
It's not the crippling type of homesickness that prevents me from enjoying my life here- on the contrary, I love what Tokyo has brought me and what it has to offer.
Perhaps it is that so much of what had been commonplace in Singapore now feels like a distant memory, and I am afraid of forgetting, of losing my roots.
そろそろ一年ぐらい日本に住んでいます。日本語を勉強することはとても大変です。
Labels: confession, home, language, life, tokyo
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