Machaneh Bonim Yisrael

            For many Jewish teenagers, the “Israel trip” is a staple of growing up. Sometime in their teenage or college years, said Jew will partake in birthright or a similar trip to Israel, to visit the mother country. I was fortunate enough to go on my Israel trip in the summer of 2016 through Habonim Dror North America, my youth movement. During my 5-week trek across Israel, we visited deserts, mountains, seas, and cities. Also during my 5 weeks of Aliyah, my life changed for the better.

            It’s cliché and I hate saying it, but to put it any way would be an understatement. When I left for Israel, in late June of 2016, I was scared out of my mind. I was entering a new environment with new people. I knew only 10 out of the 100 people that were on the trip, and liked maybe 2 of the 10 that I already knew. As well as this, most of the people had taken their time to get to know each other before the trip, but I was entering as a stranger. The first few days were weird – I stuck to the people I knew, made a friend or two, but besides that, I was miserable. I was, as per usual, having trouble getting myself out there and getting to really know people and have them really know me – something I still struggle with. I’ve always had trouble being myself around people, and letting them in, and this was no different. This changed about 4 days into the trip, when a group of 4 people called me over to the bench they were sitting on. They didn’t mean to call me – they thought I was someone else. They let me sit with them though, and they were so easy-going; within minutes I could laugh with them and feel at ease. Now, I consider two of those four people some of my best friends in the world. From there, my confidence skyrocketed. I talked to more and more people, did my best to be myself, and it worked. I made friends at a (personally) unparalleled rate, and I felt the most at home I had ever felt before. Some of my favorite moments of the trip were:

•  On the second to last night of the trip, we were at a new hostel for one day, and the room that I was assigned to had some of my least favorite people on the trip. One of my closest friends, whose room was neighboring mine, invited me into her and her roommates' room for the night, so that I wouldn't have to deal with my own room. 
• Around the middle of the trip, we had a "night hike," in which we hiked through the desert under nothing but the stars and the moon. Me and the aforementioned friend spent the entire few miles of the trek together, and even though we barely spoke, it was probably the closest I've ever felt to somebody - the emotion was palpable. 
• Rafsodia - me and my kvutzah, or my group of 20 people that I spent the entire trip with, built a raft out of barrels and wood, painted a sail, and sailed across the Kinerret. 
• The trip to Yad Vashem was an extremely emotional time for everybody there, and I learned so much about my people's past and the holocaust, as well as bonding with friends whose families had been personally affected by it.

There are many more moments, too many for me to list or go into. But I left the trip a more confident and fulfilled person, and I still hold many of the friendships that I forged on the trip in my heart as my strongest and best relationships that I have to date.