Most of us travel by choice.  No one is twisting our arms or threatening our lives to go.  In fact, we are actively searching for more opportunities to spend all our time and money on travel.  So no one should feel sympathy when we moan about feeling homesick.  No one need console us when we miss out on things happening at home.  We chose to be somewhere else; we travel by our own free will.

Still, that doesn’t keep us from feeling sorry for ourselves when we sadly look at friends’ wedding photos on Facebook, instead of Chicken Dancing with them at the reception.  We still mope around when we have to work on Thanksgiving , Fourth of July and other home-based holidays.    And we still feel terribly lonely when we lose someone back home and realize we’re too far away to make it to the funeral.  Maybe that one’s the worst.  Instead of being with friends and family who are going through the same pain, we make a few long distance calls and have to carry on as usual.

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