I’m Homesick, but Not For Nantucket

Can you be homesick for a place that many would argue isn’t even really your home? My answer is unequivocally yes. I had my first day of college classes yesterday, and had Arabic at the ungodly time of 8:10-9:50pm. Needless to say, I was already feeling rather tired by the time it was over, but when the teacher played a video with photos of various Arabic-speaking countries and Oman came on the screen, the emotions I haven’t really felt all week came down upon me all at once. I have only cried in class once before, during a particularly horrific maths class in Oman in which a test was returned to us and I found out that I had scored 33%, but I can now say that I have cried twice in class. The combination of patriotic music with beautiful photos of some of my most beloved areas of the country I have come to love as my own hit me with a profound feeling of nostalgia and, well, homesickness. I miss Oman- the vibrant culture, the welcoming people, the breathtaking beauty, the unique pace of life- more than I had anticipated. As I remarked to my parents, who I called up crying- they were rather taken aback when I told them that I was homesick not for Nantucket, but for Oman- I guess this is what you get for going abroad. No one is exaggerating when they tell you that going abroad means that you will never be entirely at home again. I left part of myself in Oman; there’s a little piece of my heart in Ghala, in Wadi Adai, in Salalah, in Nizwa, in Muttrah. Oman is just as much my home as Nantucket is and as American University will become, and there’s nothing wrong with being homesick, regardless of which home it is for.