This Year At Home: A Short Story

This Year At Home is a much appreciated follow-up short story to Next Year in Israel, by Sarah Bridgeton.

This Year At Home: A Short Story by Sarah Bridgeton

I quite enjoyed Next Year In Israel, and I can't convey my absolute joy that the author wrote a story giving closure to, the main character, Rebecca. 

Though I would have been happy with my own machinations of Rebecca charging into her old life with spiteful retaliation, it really wouldn't have done the story justice. Besides the fact that such behavior would not be in line with the character, I don't think I could have done better than the author at providing Rebecca with her own sense of poetic justice.

After dealing with issues of ceaseless bullying, suicide, depression and the inability to cope, Rebecca was given time to heal in Israel. She realized an important fact that she had forgotten as a child, or perhaps lost out of sheer despair, she could fight back. Allowing others to devalue her had led to her own humiliating and heartbreaking situation.

In This Year At Home, the story has come full circle. Rebecca is no longer filling the spot of the frightened, shaking, intolerable mess of a child that she had been reduced to. She has returned a mature, brave, and more thoughtful young woman. She faces her deepest fears and no longer tolerates mistreatment from her tormentors. As such, she faces off with Derrick and deals with the consequences. Personally, I felt an immense pride for Rebecca when she chose to do the right thing, though it wasn't the easier option.

The story was a stirring revelation of acknowledgment. Yes, Rebecca is still a teenager and though she comes back changed, there will be other issues that come up in her life. And yes, she gains her own freedom by standing up for herself and taking responsibility for her own actions. But, This Year At Home, is so much more than a simple story of a girl stepping out of her cocoon and emerging as a young woman.

Rebecca's own development affects everyone around her. From an old friend to a new budding love interest, her strength has touched a cord within every individual. It seems as if her impregnable spirit has even lent courage to her parents as they attempt to rebuild their own relationship. Her mother has genuine desire to reconnect with Rebecca and to heal what bonds were strained, if not broken. 

Bullying is a serious issue. It is absolutely debilitating and when the full force of it is consistently wielded on a young, impressionable mind, the person is not always able to cope in the most healthiest of ways. I'm glad that Sarah Bridgeton chose to shine a bright light on an old, yet nonetheless, eviscerating proclivity often effecting our younger generation. 

No one should turn a blind eye. Everyone is responsible. 

This short story is a quick read, but the impact is huge and will remain with the reader. I highly recommend both Next Year In Israel and This Year At Home, but either book will stand alone on it's own merits.

Next Year in Israel

First, I would like to say that I hope everyone is safe and secure during the horrible snowstorm raging through the northeast. That said, as I sit here with my tea and cheese crackers, I'm happy to state that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Initially, because it is Young Adult fiction, I had my doubts about another sad teen book that had the potential of ending with Stephen King's Carrie-like vindication.

Next Year in Israel by Sarah Bridgeton

This was one of those times I was pleased to be proven wrong. Next Year in Israel is about a girl named Rebecca who is ceaselessly bullied and tormented by her peers for seven long years.

Now, I don't need to tell you that seven years to a child is a lifetime.

It doesn't help that Rebecca comes from a dysfunctional, broken home with no emotional support coming her way. She feels trapped and useless. In the midst of it all, she attempts to commit suicide.

Young or old, when reading this book, you feel Rebecca's pain, her sense of urgency and the struggle that she cannot overcome. It's a heart-breaking situation that happens more than we would like to admit. Fortunately for Rebecca, she gets the opportunity to take herself out of the hell that she had been living in for so long.

She goes to a boarding school in Israel and reinvents herself. She learns for the first time in her life what friendship means. Perchance because of her past struggles and pains, Rebecca is more sensitive to her peers and displays a deeper understanding in many ways. As the books draws on, the reader will notice that in typical teenage fashion, there are definite moments of raging hormones and dramatic highs and lows. And, of course, what group of teenage girls would be complete without agonizing over boys?

As Rebecca finally begins to appreciate herself and develop some self-confidence along her journey, I felt my own mood becoming more buoyant. It was a hard earned lesson that she had to travel half way around the world to learn. The author leaves the book open-ended. We never get to see what happens when she finally goes back home. But perhaps that is for the reader to interpret. In one way or another, is it possible that we have experienced or known a Rebecca in our lives? In this reader's imagination, Rebecca attained her own apex of survival with the steadfast resolve that she found within herself.

Next Year In Israel is thought provoking and poignant. It teaches us not to take things for granted. Life is always worth living.

A Heartwarming Story

Sometimes we truly do forget the people behind the scenes.

Rabbi Harry Berkowitz and transit employee

A story that grabbed my attention.

We should honor the everyday people who put forth an effort to do good in a desensitized world. This is my tribute to Rabbi Harry Berkowitz in NYC.

He helps NYC transit workers cope with horrible disasters. It's a fact that most people are more concerned with the person who jumped in front of a moving train than the person in that train who blames him or herself for not being able to stop on time. No one asks about the trauma that the train operators have to live with.

Can we honestly say that it isn't a bit selfish to commit suicide with such cavalier disregard?

Unless a person is a hitman, I doubt people go to work telling themselves that "today is the day I kill someone". 

It's something to ponder seriously and perhaps it will give us all a moment of introspection when next we see or deal with such a grievous event.