Living away from home is tough. I’ve been there. In fact, I’ve mostly been away from home since I was 17 so I get it. Homesickness is a real thing and it will likely plague you at one point or another when you’re on your overseas adventure.

For fellow Australians, it’s hard to deal with the lack of Masterfoods barbecue sauce and the king of spices: chicken salt. For everyone else, any of those creature comforts you’ve grown up with are missing and that paired with the distance between family and friends can make you feel like you can’t function. You feel lost. You feel like, dare I say it, you’re in a bell jar. Depressed. Trapped. Suffocating.

Maybe you don’t feel that intense, but I know that’s how I felt when I first moved out of home. Since then, it’s been a lot easier. I went back for a while, left again, went home on an extended visit, left once more. You get the picture. It does get easier to be away.

However bad your homesickness is, it will get better. I’ve compiled a list of a few movies that will bring forth those excited butterflies that you had when planning this adventure. They’ll make you feel connected to your present situation once more, which should then ease your homesickness for a little while.

Under The Tuscan Sun

Okay, so it’s a little lame in parts (that flag throwing bit…seriously?), but the message is sound. The protagonist, Frances, goes to Tuscany, buys a house and spends the majority of the movie trying to get her shit together and not feel like she made a huge mistake in uprooting her life.

I like this story in particular because she does this mission solo and still finds joy in the experience. This is a great one to watch if you’re feeling a little lost and unsure as to why you even started this adventure in the first place. It’ll give you a sense of satisfaction knowing that it can work out well if you just keep at it and try to enjoy the ride. Also, it’s a great reminder that you can’t always plan things. Sometimes your path will lead you in another direction, one that you hadn’t planned for but it can still be an amazing destination at the end.

Brooklyn

I was quite torn with this movie as I wasn’t sure if it would make homesickness worse or better. I think it depends on you as an individual. For me, since its release in Australia in 2015, this movie has given me motivation and inspiration to make the most of my experiences in the places I’m living.

The protagonist Eilis, goes through homesickness herself when she gets an opportunity to live and work in America, far away from her family in Ireland. She struggles and she’s sad, but she also starts to get the hang of things.

This story shows us that the things that make us sad or lonely can make us stronger and better people. They shape us and help us grow, and once you’ve gotten through the hard bits, relief and joy will follow in full force.

I’ve had friends who’ve seen this and say that it made them feel more homesick, but for me, the last few scenes give me hope that I can make a home anywhere and that that longing for home, it ebbs and flows.

Away We Go

This one is a personal favourite of mine. It’s probably not the most well-known movie but it’s got a lot of things to love about it.

The protagonists Verona and Burt are pretty aimless. They’ve got a child on the way and they’re suddenly unsure about where they should be living. They begin a cross-country journey to find the place that feels like home to them.

This movie has a beautiful story. It’s one that really resonates with me as I am on a very similar path to these two vagabonds. I am always moving to new places in the hope that one day I’ll find the place that speaks to me most, that invites me to make a permanent home there.

This story is about finding your home. That might be away from your family and in a new country, it might be with a particular person, or it might be with that really great cake you had last week. Sometimes home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling, and this movie really encapsulates this idea.

Before Sunrise

Two strangers meet on a train leaving from Budapest. One is going to Vienna, the other to Paris…

This movie tells the story of Jesse and Céline. Their chance encounter and them knowing that they only have minimal time together keeps them in the present. They’re not lusting over their destinations, home or other people, they’re simply present in each other’s company.

This movie is totally great. If it doesn’t get you out of your homesickness funk, then I don’t know what will. It is a great reminder of how lucky us travelling nomads are to be in the situation we’re in. Yes, you could focus hard on the main plot and try to meet a beautiful stranger on a train or just think about the context of this movie.

If you’re lucky enough to be in the UK or Europe, you could easily get on a train that goes from Budapest to Paris, via Vienna! How amazingly cool is that? If you’re elsewhere in the world, you could take Amtrak’s very scenic Empire Builder train from Seattle to Portland. Or in Australia, boarding the Indian Pacific that’ll take you from Sydney, across the expansive Nullarbor to Perth.

This movie is a reminder that we’re here for an adventure so we ought to go have one, as well as to remain in the present and not get caught up on where you wish you were rather than where you are right now. It doesn’t need to be a big adventure, it can be small, you just have to take that first step.

Julie and Julia

This may seem like a strange choice as it’s a movie about a chef, however I actually think it’s a really good way to curb homesickness.

Firstly, the plot of this movie is quite involved so you’ll be distracted if that’s all you’re really looking for. But if you want to delve a little deeper, which is what I like to do when I feel sad about this stuff, then think about the two women in this movie and how they overcame their feelings of aimlessness and dissatisfaction. They both found their thing. The thing that made them excited to jump out of bed in the morning.

If your thing isn’t travelling but you’re on the road anyway, just for the sake of it, then find your thing while you’re on that journey. If it is travel, but you’re feeling a little blue then take a day trip, a drive, a walk to a different part of town. Do like Julie and Julia did and find the thing that you’re passionate about. If you find that blood-pumping thing while you’re away from home, then your homesickness will fade into the background. Similar to Brooklyn, this movie is about finding your place. Something that is just yours.