When it comes to leaving your family and city or even country to acquire the educational qualifications needed to sail through in your career, the time becomes very difficult. One has to make self mentally prepared and strong to take a step forward away from home.
There are so many who move away from home not just for months but for years. Although ‘time heals everything’, the initial time is what makes it tough for the individuals. If you too are an outstation student or have been one, you must have surely gone through the following challenges:
Missing Home Cooked Food (Ma Ke Haath Ka Khana):
This is the most common thing every outstation student faces. Nothing can beat home-cooked yellow lentils and rice (dal rice). We all know it. When you move to a new place, especially in a hostel, you are bound to miss your mom’s food. This will happen till the time you don’t get used to the local/hostel food. Once you get habituated, you will certainly continue missing the home food, but you won’t find it difficult to survive.
Feeling Homesick:
It is the most obvious thing to happen. If you have lived with your family since birth and are suddenly moving away due to education or job, you will definitely spend a good two months missing your family members. The best way to deal with this is by talking to them over a phone call and sharing with them how your day was and have them do it as well. You can also meet them over a video call. If you have just moved to a different city or state, you can visit them during a weekend or vacation. This will make it easier for you to deal with your homesickness.
Feeling Incapable Of Continuing Further:
Feeling like a failure can be an on and off thing. Many factors add up to feeling like a failure or being incapable of doing anything good. Not being able to cope up with the curriculum, failing at doing chores on your own, not being able to cook food for yourself, constantly missing your family, etc. are some of the most common examples that lead to feeling like a failure. Let me tell you, just because you fail at doing certain things doesn’t make you a failure. Sometimes you just have to hand in there for a little longer and allow yourself some time. Things will start to settle.
Not Being Able To Mix and Make Friends:
Peer pressure has trapped all of us. We all try to fit in in different ways. Being in a new city/state or country, it is common to experience a culture shock. People represent and contribute largely to a particular culture. It can happen that you may find it difficult to communicate and make friends with the local residents due to the disparities in culture and lifestyle. However, don’t forget that people everywhere have common forms of emotions. As long as that happens, you shouldn’t worry much. To top it, if you are an introvert, then you might take a little more time to make connections, but you will end up making friends eventually.
Finding The Syllabus Difficult:
The teaching and studying method and pattern differ everywhere. Therefore in the initial stages, you might not be able to cope up with the syllabus and everything that has been taught in the lectures, but gradually you will get the hang of the methods and find it easy to study and perform well in the academics.
These are the most common problems that an outstation student faces. However, it is important to note that the outstation students also turn out to be nicely developed independent individuals.
