I remember a fellow international student warning me that Trojan Family Weekend can get lonely for international students, whose parents, naturally, can’t fly from across the world just for a weekend. At that moment, I just shrugged and didn’t pay much heed, assuming I would be so used to being away from home by then that it wouldn’t bother me. Surprise surprise, I was wrong.

I completely forgot that it was Family Weekend until I sat outside on the center tables at USC Village, taking full advantage of the sunshine while memorizing the types of rocks found on the moon (if it sounds boring, it’s because it is), and slowly noticed people who looked too old to be college students. I quietly observed the plethora of welcomes, from some families literally jumping into each other’s arms with high-pitched squeals to others shaking hands as if it was a job interview. Either way, it was clear: They all were family. 

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It was an apocalypse with parents taking over campus. I couldn’t avoid them, whether I was just popping into Trader Joe’s, where I saw a mother kissing her daughter’s forehead (ugh I miss my mum), or leaving Doheny Memorial Library after a grueling (you guessed it) geology study session, where families proudly posed in front of Tommy Trojan. 

I didn’t even bother trying to make a profit when selling my ticket to the Arizona football game — I was just desperate to see fewer parents. Never have I been more grateful for having three midterms crammed in two days: I spent a huge chunk of my weekend indoors staring at my laptop rather than at happy families.

Fine, I will stop with the pessimistic outlook, because how can you be mad at something so wholesome? The overwhelming amount of positive energy and love on campus was contagious: I couldn’t help but smile when I’d get a sneak peek of so many cute moments exchanged between loved ones. 

Moreover, meeting my friend’s parents, who were extremely warm and recounted all of their adventures of the day (including having a heart attack when they opened my friend’s empty refrigerator) was touching. Even though they weren’t my parents, they were a parent, and it just reiterated how beautiful the bond between a parent and child is. 

My weekend was made less lonely by spending time with my international friends, who, without me needing to state it explicitly, knew exactly the tumultuous emotions I was feeling. (Why aren’t my feelings ever simple?) There’s this mutual understanding that even though we all signed up to study abroad and knew we would go long stretches without seeing our family, we didn’t really account for how it would feel when others saw their family and we couldn’t. 

But, honestly, it isn’t all bad. You may not be able to engage in the festivities, but you can have your own form of parents weekend, where you have long FaceTimes with them, play games online or show them the meal that you almost burned. Maybe next year, USC could also have some virtual parents’ weekend activities to engage parents who couldn’t make it physically. 

With so many things to look forward to and be happy about, I am just tired of complaining that international students have it harder. I can either use this column to rant about how much I miss home, which will result in absolutely nothing because I am here to stay and that won’t change, or I can be a teeny-tiny bit more positive. I am so grateful that I get to be here and meet all these amazing people, and that their families could come. But, I am most grateful for the fact that even though mine is 8,698 miles away, they don’t ever let me feel alone. 

Edhita Singhal is a sophomore from India writing about her experiences as an international student in her column, “Foreign Footprints,” which runs every other Tuesday.