Student crying sophomore blues

Dear Annie: I’m a second-semester college student who is having a horrible time transitioning back to school. Since classes started up again, I’ve called home every night, sobbing and miserable.

I had a wonderful first semester and can’t figure out why I’m so unhappy now. All I want to do is go home. I miss my parents incredibly, and all the friends I met here last semester aren’t nearly as nice as I thought they were.

I spend every day feeling more and more alone. I’ve lost motivation to do anything. I can’t enjoy my classes and don’t even have fun practicing with my rugby team, something I used to love. I stopped going to parties and never feel like doing much. Everything feels so empty. I talked to the school counselor once and also went home for a weekend, which helped a little bit, but now I’m right back where I started.

I’m considering becoming a commuter student, because I just can’t stand feeling this way anymore. Do you have any advice? – Homesick and Lonely

Dear Homesick: It’s not unusual for college students who are living away from home for the first time to experience some depression. Please go back to the school counselor today and ask for more help. Also, phone your parents and discuss this with them, and on your next trip home, consider the possibility of seeing a therapist. If, after a couple of weeks, you don’t feel more capable of handling the distance, it might be wise to become a commuter student to finish out the semester. You can always give campus living another try next year.

Dear Annie: My 20th wedding anniversary is approaching, and I have a dilemma. When my wife and I first married, our priorities were to buy a home and raise a family. She never asked for an engagement ring, but she certainly deserves the finest I can get.

I would like to surprise her, but is it better to let her pick out her own ring? I know that even if she hated the one I selected, she’d never let me know. – Torn in Tulsa, Okla.

Dear Torn: This is one of those purchases where it’s best if you know what your wife would like. You can ask her sisters or friends if she’s ever expressed an interest in a particular style, you can take her window-shopping past jewelry stores, innocently discussing her likes and dislikes until you get a sense of what she wants, or you can try something more playful. Perhaps give her a huge plastic ring and present it to her with a note saying it’s a stand-in for the real thing that you will buy when she is at your side to select it. We think she’ll be thrilled either way.

Dear Annie: I am a dermatologist in downtown Chicago. Excessive sweating can be a problem of great magnitude affecting not only social relations, but the ability to work. The latest and best therapy is Botox. These injections will eliminate sweating for six months or more, and sometimes are covered by insurance. – J.B. Pinski, M.D.

Happy Passover to all our Jewish readers.