Away but Not Alone: Spending Holidays Abroad as an International Student

Since we were little, the holiday season has felt like home-a warm hug from our favourite cousin, an appreciating pat from our grandfather, kids' laughter echoing through the house, the scent of our mom's homemade food wafting from the kitchen! As we grew up, the festivities became a time to connect and celebrate with family and friends we met after a long time because of our busy schedules. Only when we are studying in a foreign land do we realise that our first holiday season away from home feels like a bittersweet milestone.

It’s the time of the year when everyone around us is celebrating Thanksgiving with pumpkin pies and turkeys and adorning Christmas trees with glistening lights and ornaments. As Indians, these festivities aren’t the ones we celebrated from our childhood, but still seeing families coming together for these unfamiliar holidays, we find ourselves missing our mom when she called us to decorate our home for Diwali, how our dads’ got us sweets, how we mischievously played with our siblings, and how our grandparents gave us money envelopes. Oh! These sweet memories! Even though Thanksgiving isn’t our festival, something about it makes us long to be back home. It’s the holiday’s essence-how the loved ones gather and share gratitude for everything-all feels too familiar. It makes us miss home, where every festival meant a celebratory union of family and tradition.

As our semester abroad draws to a close, and your classmates are off to enjoy the ‘holidays’, does our social media not flood with friends from back home posting countdowns to celebrate? Meanwhile, we're scrolling through our feeds and reminiscing how we spent the festivities and holidays with our loved ones back home. Surely feels like a gnawing pain when you’re friends call to ask about your plans for the holidays and all you answer is “I’m staying in!”.

The first holiday season away from home feels heavier than we ever imagined. It’s the time when we long to be home more than ever. But there’s a beauty in this longing, with a lesson waiting to unfold. Being far away from home doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate the festivities and the holidays, but we get to celebrate them all in our own ways!

As lonely as it may seem, this time helps us discover ourselves in many unique ways, enabling us to create our little moments of joy. Maybe it’s simply decorating our dorm or getting on a video call with Mom to make her oh-so-yum dal makhani and parantha. We sure can’t match her taste, but the hysterical call witnessing our laughter will make us miss home a little less. And even though our family lives miles away, the friends we made in this foreign land can feel like home! A simple act of inviting them over to share a meal and enjoy chats about how everyone celebrated the festivities back home can turn loneliness into a warm circle of loved ones. You can even go out with your friends to explore the Christmas markets near you, enjoy a holiday party, or simply enjoy hot chocolate with some pizza over a Bollywood marathon night snuggling in your bed.

As we cherish new and existing traditions while embracing change, we find beauty in exploring this bittersweet journey that teaches us resilience. It’s about the joy we find when a friend invites us for Thanksgiving dinner with their family, and their pumpkin pie offers a different kind of sweetness than kaju katli but fills our hearts with nothing but love.

So, if we feel lonely this holiday season, let’s stay strong knowing we’re not alone. Numerous other students, away from home, are finding ways to celebrate, connect, and feel at home in different parts of the world. And yes, it’s okay to miss home-it’s proof of the love waiting for us on the other side of this journey. It means we belong somewhere. But we also need to understand that we’re building something here-new memories, new friends, a career, and a stronger version of ourselves who can make our loved ones swell with pride.

Remember, home is never as far as it feels. We carry it with us in every call, every shared story, and every moment we choose to connect over isolation. And when we’re finally back home, those hugs will be tighter, those moments richer, because we’ve lived and grown through this.

Lorien Finance wishes you an amazing Thanksgiving, a baller Black Friday and joyous holidays ahead!