Goodbye - Part 1

Part of the birthright experience is having a group of Israelis, usually around your age, join you for a portion of the trip. The Israelis are either currently serving in the armed forces or are students at a university. For our trip, we had 7 Israelis join us - 4 serving in the army, and 3 civilians. I was skeptical at first of a group of Israeli soldiers joining us. How would they fit in? Would they be too serious? Are they fun? Those concerns were immediately alleviated when we met the group who would be joining us for 5 days. They fit into the group just like anyone else on the trip. We shared stories, hopes, dreams, and aspirations. We formed connections. We experienced life through each other's eyes. One of the biggest surprises for me was that the Israelis looked forward to this experience as much or more than we did. It is considered a privilege to join a birthright trip, and our new friends took full advantage of the opportunity.

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our new family, as they only join us for a portion of the trip. It quickly became clear that the bonds formed were deeper and stronger than any of us could have imagined only a few days before, as the goodbyes were emotional and difficult to handle. It speaks to how special this trip truly is that a group of 7 people, strangers living in a strange land only 1 week before, became family with a group of 36 Americans, strangers themselves 1 week prior. 

The hardest part for me was thinking about the potential that will never come to fruition. When will we see these friends again in person? Even if we do, how long will we actually connect? There's no way to know for sure what the future holds, but even if we never connect again, it's comforting to know we shared something that can never be taken away. Add another 7 to the ever crowding but never full permanent marking on my shoulder.

To Oren, Assaf, Li, Eden, Nadav, Mor, and Maya - we love you all. 

Not looking forward to repeating this exercise in 3 days when the group breaks for good.

Kaps

Song of the Day:  Boyz II Men - It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday