THE holidays can be stressful, the running around buying gifts, decorating, cooking and entertaining can be tiresome.
In some cases, tempers flare as pressure builds up.
Expectations are high during the festive season as many of us try to recapture the anticipation we felt as children, waiting for visitors from out of town.
Festive seasons are times when the family unity is reignited and family relations are strengthened.
Its a time when children put on new clothes and make a beeline to the shops to show off their new wardrobe.
All the trouble and stress is worth it when families finally gather and share meals, swap stories catching up.
But abroad, all this is absent, the festive seasons do not really mean anything.
It is a time when people here get serious homesickness.
There is no close family to visit.
Many spend all the holidays in doors.
When you are away from home it’s like Dante created your own private circle of hell.
The idea of carrying out all the holiday stuff alone is beyond overwhelming.
Shopping for Christmas presents turns one’s head in.
One is not even motivated to send out Christmas cards to relatives and friends?
What would you say in them “doing awful”?
It’s miserable to be away from home during the holidays.
The absence of close relatives, the gatherings and communion makes the whole festive season unbearable.
It is a time when people reflect whether they are really any benefits in being in the diaspora.
You berate yourself for not partaking fully in the joys of the season and mixing up with relations, catching up with old friends.
The second issue that makes it so hard to be abroad is that having the holidays right requires planning and organisation.
If you’re alone and away you’re so far from having those capabilities, that is pathetic.
You can’t even plan past the next five minutes, let alone a whole holiday season.
You feel like bursting into tears when someone asks you to join in singing a Christmas carol.
Worst of all, you’re overly sensitive in general – to noise, to anything sad, garish decorations that make you really feel home sick.
You try to act ‘normal’ while all this turmoil and pain is going on inside you.
It is not a nice experience to be abroad and away from family during festive holidays.
Being alone during the holidays definitely leads to depression. You’re being bombarded with images of happy family gatherings that won’t be part of your holidays.
You know you should be happy and having fun.
No one has to tell you that. But they do anyway, and you just want to slug them and burst out crying at the same time.
Being surrounded by friends and relatives is the meaning of holiday.
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