If you asked me where I would be in 3 ½ months on August 25, I probably would have said something SO different than where I am now. HSI has changed me so drastically, and I’m forever grateful. Here at Muss, we have something called “muss magic”. “Muss magic” is the experience and feelings you have at HSI. I’ll take my experiences back home with me, and I’ll have them forever. Not only have I learned from the classes and tiyulim here, but I have learned from life experiences. No one else back home dropped everything they had, moved out of their home, left their parents, friends, coaches, and family to travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic to live with people that they didn’t know. Coming to Muss made me more confident in my decisions. Coming to Muss also made me more self-aware. There are a million and one things I have to do every single day, I don’t have time for little problems that I worried about back home. I need to be independent and focus on important topics in my life, not petty drama. Another thing that I will bring home is my time management skills. Muss tells us to do 25 hours of work in 24 hours. Being on time to activities, tiyulim, and meals as well as staying on top of your school work is a demanding task, but my time management skills is so much better now. When I go back home, I now know that I only should focus on what’s important to me, and that I need to be determined in everything that I do. Lastly, I’ll take back what it means to have a second family. Right now, I am sitting outside in the gorgeous Israel weather writing this blog next to one of my best friends. I wish I could stay here with her forever. These people aren’t just my classmates or my roommates anymore, they’re my family. I know who is there for me and that quality is so so much more important than quantity. I’ll always remember that.

Signing off from Hod once again,

Ari Weiner