Moving across the country for a job at twenty-one takes guts. Calling home every week takes humility. Do both.

Leaving proves you can bet on yourself, and it is the part people congratulate. Staying in touch is the harder discipline, because it means admitting you still need the people you just left. Plenty of people manage one and not the other, and both at once is what makes the move work.

Set a standing time for the call rather than waiting until you have news, since the weeks with nothing to report are the ones that stretch into months. Tell them the dull parts. Let the homesickness be ordinary rather than a sign you chose wrong.