How does it feel like to leave home?

A year ago, I moved to Europe to study. In less than two months, I am going to Sweden for an Erasmus exchange mobility. This year two friends of mine from bachelor’s came here to study. One of them is a girl who has lived on her own for four years in Iran. She does not face many difficulties when it comes to doing house chores or doing things on her own. She even does not feel homesick that much. The biggest obstacle she faced was finding who she was and what kind of lifestyle she wanted. She thinks she still hasn’t found herself and needs to discover more of her inner world. The other one comes from a family with whom she has had some problems. She once told me that she does not miss them a lot. For her, it is sometimes problematic to take care of herself or to solve her issues on her own.

After seeing them, I found that leaving home is not necessarily the same for everyone. I was desperately missing my home and my family. I felt genuinely homesick for a significant amount of time. And I used to see that as the main reason to feel lonely. However, now I see people who don’t have that much connection with their home country but still feel lonely. It is not about having the best family members nor hating the ones you had back in your country. It is simply a part of independent life anywhere other than your home country. It is merely human beings. Maybe loneliness is inevitable for anyone who has left their country. Or perhaps it is simply the way we are. Maybe we are supposed to feel lonely at some point. Even if you have the best friends and family, there will be invertible moments where you may feel lonely. I remember that when I was watching the last season of sex and the city, Carrie (the main character of the series), who had left the US for Paris because of her loved one, struggled with homesickness. Ridiculously, I felt good about that. I was happy to see an American (even a fictional one) suffer as a foreigner. Consequently, this idea came into my mind: what if every person on Earth had to move from one place to another and experience living as a foreigner? Could it make us more sympathetic toward one another? 

The concept of globalization suggests no borders in the world. It considers the whole world as the home for all human beings. It is idealistically such an excellent idea, but can it ever be? 

Maybe if I were not from the Middle East, I would never think about this matter. Do we suffer from each other’s suffering? Do we care about each other?