Becoming Home

                   Hi. My name is Rebekah LaRue Newell. I have lived here, in Indonesia, for about 4 years now with my family. Since being here there has been a lot of ups and downs for me personally. I came here in 2010, my first year of middle school. During this year, I felt out of place and was missing home. However, by the end of this year I felt like I was getting used to the place even though my brother had graduated and left country. That year was definitely a year of transition. I hardly remember the events, but I do remember the emotions.
                  My seventh grade year was the year that everything was getting really good. Even though my brother had left, as I said before, and I missed him terribly, I finally felt like this place was becoming home. BAIS was no longer just a school by the end of that year. My class was no longer just classmates. They became my family. They filled the spot of my big Italian and Irish family back home. They didn't replace them; they never could, but they gave me the feeling only a family could give - the feeling of being loved.
                  My eighth grade year was hard. It was the final year of middle school and I was going through a lot of stuff within my class and with others. I was also playing soccer in the beginning of the year and went to IISSAC. (IISSAC stands for Indonesian International Small School Activities Conference. IISSAC is where we go to different schools that participate and we play sports. We go three times a year for soccer, basketball, and swimming/cross country/badminton.) When I went to soccer IISSAC I learned about being a part of a team and I got to know other people in my school well, who are outside of my class. After soccer IISSAC, I was on a spiritual high. But then it went low. This started my now constant of sprirtual high and lows. Which of course, means I need to get in the Word more because I know I don't get into it nearly enough. At the end of this year we had the eighth grade banquet which meant the end of my time in middle school.
                 I am now in the ninth grade, my first year of high school. Being in high school isn't as hard as I thought it would be, although I have struggled more so far this year than any other year, I know that BAIS and Indonesia is still my home even though I miss the States. Honestly, I don't miss it as much as I used to. I would love to go back and see my friends and family and I can't wait to. This is my home. I finally feel comfortable in it even though it sometimes is hard to be here. It has finally become home and the people have finally become family. Happy new years 2014! :)