One of the first words that perfectly fitted me in the English language was, homesick because there’s no such word in Spanish that conveys the feeling, I asked around, searched in several dictionaries and I wasn’t completely satisfied, maybe there is one… I just couldn’t fit the bunch of feelings in just one word.
One English dictionary defines homesick as this: A word that is used when some people feel nostalgia about being far from the place where they grew up.
Nostalgia comes from Greek nostos -return home- together with the Latin word algia -pain-. People use the word nostalgia in Spanish to explain the pain of remembering past experiences, not really to refer to the feeling of missing home, the Spanish Real Academy of language will have to reeducate the whole Spanish speaking world in the correct use of nostalgia.
I came up with my definition, homesickness is: I miss home, it hurts, I dream about the streets, I play sad songs that remind me of my country, my imagination plays terrible games with me because in my mind I smile at the people, I can smell the food, I get upset with the traffic, I can smell the roasted chicken on the corners, I can see the street dogs wandering in my old neighborhood; I just want to be home, but I can’t. This, has to be more than nostalgia; how can it explain the sudden tears when thinking about home? I woke up one night in the middle of the night with a stroke-like feeling, my doctor says I’m homesick; so now I’m diagnosed with something; is this a real sickness? Google will know, I did some research and I found that in late the late 1800s early 1900s it was considered a disease, it had a list of symptoms, even soldiers were dying of it. A headline from 1899 read: “Fatal Nostalgia: Woman Died Because She Could Not Live Away From New York.
One of the cures available is feeling connected. A lot of people with good intentions adventured to say, “oh well, it is easier to feel connected with social media and technology”, in my experience that just helps a little and will give you a momentaneous relief but it’s not a cure. So finally I figured that the cure for Homesickness was HOME.
The root of this problem was falling in love. I got sick of this evil disease when I got married in the USA and move to New Orleans, I felt kidnapped from a country that wouldn’t let me go back home until I’ve got my residence card, that’s fine if the process wouldn’t take so long.
Finally after almost two years, one afternoon I arrived at my house, opened the mailbox and there it was. This envelope doesn’t only contain a card, it’s my freedom to come and go as I wish. I’m getting the pill that I much needed, the treatment is simple but it comes with side effects.
As we are landing, I can smell it, my lungs hurt, I have a hard time breathing, my heart is beating fast, the altitude gives me a dizzy head and buzzing ears, but I love it, yes, it’s real, I’m home, I’m cured.
Final Thoughts.
