Hae Won Kang
EDUC-U210
11/08/10
Assignment: Paper #1

One of the toughest decisions I made in my life was to decide to go to America and earn a degree here. As a native from South Korea, I barely spoke any English and my knowledge of the culture of the United States was low. I knew it was going to be the biggest challenge in my life getting out of my comfort zone from home and trying to learn at a different environment. But I didn’t have much choice but to deal with it and try to adapt to the new culture as soon as possible. As I read chapter four, I went back in time and thought about the hard times I had when I first came to the United States.
One of the most interesting parts of chapter four was about how students experience both of the excitement of a new environment and the loss of some comforts of home. When I read the definition of homesickness and friendsickness, I felt sympathized because those words related with my experience in the past. In year 2007, I decided to come to the United States and earn my degree at Indiana University. When I first came to the US, I didn’t feel any homesickness or friendsickness at first. I was enjoying the new environment trying to learn the new culture and language as much as possible. I was so busy learning, I didn’t even have time to describe homesickness in my life then. But as I got use to the environment, I started to feel the word homesickness and friendsickness. Especially since my home town is a foreign country, it is really hard to see my family and friends unless its summer or winter breaks. There was a point where I couldn’t see my family and friends for two years and I felt really depressed. I often end my days with tears and I couldn’t find anything to help myself to feel better. I tried my best to forget about my home town and have fun with my friends here at Indiana University but the feeling of homesickness and friendsickness was something severe than I thought. I started being more active by attending campus activities including parties and tried to be social but when I came back home, I would think of all my family and friends at South Korea and start thinking, “I wish my family and friends were here..” As my feeling of my missing my friends and family grew, homesick was being part of my social life. Another interesting part of the reading was referring students as actual clients of the university. It is also true that family members feels like they have 100% access to student’s information because they pay the majority of the school bills but this is an incorrect statement according to federal law. This means that family should not open their student’s mail, in fact, it is illegal any person to open mail that does not address him or her. Even though I don’t have any direct experience from this, I agreed that students have definitely more access in our own grades or personal information than parents or any guardians do. My parents have no access in seeing my grades until I granted them permission with my password given. The Bloom’s stage of the parent/adolescent separation process was agreeable. Learning the process of the five distinct stages of separation process specifically was interesting. The five stages refer to: ambivalence, cognitive separation, emotional separation, values clarification, and new relationship. In conclusion, I think there were many interesting theories and knowledge into entering a new environment and adjusting as well. Students experience of homesickness and friendsickness is something that every one experiences once in a life time as a college student or if you’re adjusting to a new environment by yourself. Also, referring students as actual clients and stating family members don’t have any rights to access student’s information was interesting. The theory of the Bloom’s stage of parent separation process was something I would remember and acknowledge later in my life.