Missionary Kid Monday: Coming Home

{For more on this series, click here}


When my junior year in California FINALLY ended, it was time to fly back to France. Only this time, my whole family was flying back to Germany instead. It was decided that my parents would work at the school - my dad teaching chemistry and my mom teaching part-time French.


We would live in town - walking distance from the school - and my younger sister and brother would start attending. Here's the walkway down into our town house:

To say I was excited about being back for my senior year is a huge understatement! I felt like I could hear angels singing the Hallelujah chorus as we rolled into town that summer!


I was a little bummed not to be surrounded by the girls in the dorm that year, but I knew that many of my friends would also be "home students" in town so there would still be lots of people to hang out with.


I was also nervous. During the year I was gone, around twenty new kids joined my class - taking it from 50ish to 70ish students. I wrote in my diary:

I know I am being selfish and childish, but I can't help it... I will resent all of these new-to-me people because they have created a new school that I am not used to.

But looking back on those diary entries, I know now what was really going on: I was feeling very possessive of my friends. I didn't want to share them with the new kids. One whole year of feeling so very alone will do that to you: I wanted to hoard them like the precious treasure they were. Greedily. The thought that my old friends had made new friends and had made fun new memories without me during our junior year was too tortuous a thought to entertain....


But the school year started and I adjusted. And it was definitely one of the best years of my life! Despite all of the drama, the boys, the unrequited love, the teenage angst, I was able to make some great memories:

Our Senior Class Trip to Rome (for a week!)

Doing makeup for our school play

Playing games with friends

Going to the Junior-Senior Banquet (no dancing allowed!)

These pictures are worth over 1000 words each, but I thought I'd spare you :)


Of course, all good things must eventually come to an end. In this case, graduation truly felt like a screeching, crashing halt. But more on that next time!


What was your favorite year of high school?