Being Homesick isn't Always a Bad Thing?

ALBUM - Carry on up the Charts by The Beautiful South

Should probably start this by introducing myself first. My name is Georgia Flynn and I am a 20 year old student currently living in Catania, Sicily. I study Italian and Spanish at the University of Edinburgh and am currently doing the first part of my Erasmus exchange here in Sicily. Meaning that in February I will be moving to Santiago, Chile for the next adventure. I’ve been in Catania just over a month now and my flatmate, Ciara, inspired me to do this.

I will admit it, I am a quitter. I often think I walk through life without a passion or hobby. I have the want to do so much and so many things interest me, but I very rarely pursue these interests. I’m one of those people that says their hobbies are reading and music. And as much as I truly love these parts of my life, I want to do more with them. So this is the plan: to maintain some stability in the absolutely crazy world that is being a foreign student in Sicily, I am going to attempt to write a blog.

As I see it now, I will write this one post and perhaps post it, or not - out of sheer fear and lack of confidence - and forget the whole thing after a week. This was invariably what happened with every childhood diary I kept as well. But I hope that for once, I can push away the quitter and become Georgia the blogger. Amazingly, I have managed to think of something to talk about for my first post, so here goes. I hope I’m not the only one interested by my internal monologue - sorry!

So, it’s a lazy Thursday afternoon in October here in Catania and as usual I was choosing between binge-watching some Friends episodes I have seen an embarrassing amount of times, or reading a book and listening to some music. My parents delivered a Kindle when they visited because all my books had to be taken out of the case for sheer lack of space. So very recently, I was introduced to the joy of e-books *insert sarcasm here*. I did, however, find Anna Karenina for 49p and snapped at the opportunity to read a classic I have always been intrigued by. That is however not the subject of this post as I am currently on page 16, so forgive me, and perhaps if this goes well there may be a post about it later?

I put on some music and I’m still not sure how it happened but on came a song by The Beautiful South which I haven't heard in months - somehow they don’t feature on my playlists yet, hence why I was so confused. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed by too many memories to focus on any singular moment, but it was as if my entire childhood was playing on superspeed in my head. A Lot of the music played in my house as a child was thanks to my Dad’s influence, but The Beautiful South is one band that reminds me of my entire family. With my parents having just visited I am noticing the pang of homesickness that little bit more the last couple of days. So when this song started I expected to become a snivelling mess. But instead I was just overcome by joy and warmth for all the happy memories. I went onto Spotify and found the entire album, and as I sit here writing I have it playing on repeat. Maybe I would have found a subject for my first post regardless but it just felt too good an opportunity to miss.

As one of my best friends said to me, music truly is my medicine. I just think it is fascinating how music can make people feel so many different emotions and how in that moment, I wasn’t sad, I was happy to remember my home fondly. Feeling homesick doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, living away from home is such a rollercoaster of emotions and encounters, and sometimes I do miss my family and yearn to be home. But in this instance I was grateful for the nostalgia The Beautiful South caused.

As a theme for my posts (optimistic, I know), I’m going to recommend an album each time to listen to along with my post, if you feel so inclined - I have no means of finding out if you do so that's your call. I will often find myself gravitating towards one artist or album and can listen to them on repeat for days, I’m sure most people aren’t at all like that, but seeings I listened solely to The Beautiful South while writing this post, I like the idea of mirroring that by letting you read it along to the album as well. Right, enough of my internal monologue, if you stuck it out with me to the end, I thank you. If you are left wanting more (which I’m sure you are) I intend to write my next post on my 2 weeks interrailing through central Europe in September. The plan is to write about my life if it’s been exciting, and if not I’ll find something more interesting to write about. I may try my hand at an album review or two, so watch this space. I know it’s all very well and good saying this and I’m reminded of the saying “famous last words” right now, but hopefully this is the start of something Georgia didn’t quit at.