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"How long are you staying in Indonesia?...So GOOD!"
"I can't wait to go back."
"So good, you are able to go back...Home"

Above are some of the responses I got from fellow Indonesian friends (who are living in Singapore) when they learnt that I will be going home for one solid week previously.
I was a little puzzled actually to the way they responded, and I wondered why was it such a big deal for them when they learnt that I am going home.

My enquiries were answered one night when I was making my way back home with another Indonesian friend of mine who had just came to Singapore for a few months.
Unlike me who is fortunate enough to have my whole family living under one roof here in Singapore, these people has none. And the idea of going back home for them is just as thrilling as meeting their loved ones.

Home.
How often do we think aout how valuable it is to us?

Maybe just like me, who are always surrounded by my loved ones, we never realized how important it is to be at home.
But the feeling is different when it comes to those who are living alone in a foreign country, and it is no wonder why, when I said I am going back to Indonesia, all of them were looking at me with 'envy'.

But thanks to that, it allows me to comprehend what it means to be home.
Apart from that, it also enables me to understand why some Indonesians always say that living in Singapore is "not nice".
Or why some old people always prefers to die at home then in the hospital, because hospital is 'not nice'.

Well, maybe the idea of 'not nice' here is not that they dislike the country/the place they are stationed, no. Because those Indonesians living in Singapore that I talked to actually like the facilities and living condition here.
Or the old people, who were asked why they keep wanting to go home, when here in the hospital they will have nurses and doctors to attend to them twenty-seven.

But the reason why they said that is because, it is 'unplesant' to be alone.
It is 'uncomfortable' to be living in a place so alien to you with no one you love by your side.

It is no wonder why in his song, Michael Bubble repeat the words : "Let me go home" so many times and with such emotion that perhaps only a person who has been far away from home can understand.

From this experience, I also learnt about what it means to be independent-courageous-determine-willing as you continue to live your life here in this foreign land even when you feel like "I want to go home." despite being surrounded by a million people.

Fortunately, the good news is, just like how Bubble ended his song by saying "It'll all be alright, I'll be home tonight, I'm coming back home."  all of you my friends who have been living 'alone' all these while and have been looking forward to go home, will be making your way home soon too. :)

And though its a little pity that we could not spend Christmas together and it's a little too early for me to say
this, but I really wish that wherever you are, all of you out there are going to have a Blessed Merry Christmas out there :)


Love and Peace,
Yuliana :)

ps. YF-ers SEMANGAT!