I strongly recommend that you make the decision to come!

I want to start off by saying this, the program and your first few weeks in Israel will be a harder than anything you are used to BUT, it really just adds to the delightful experience that you will have here. What I am trying to say is that you should not pay more attention to the harder parts you should be focusing on the better ones because that is really all that will matter during and after the trip. These few challenges consist of you being far away from home and have to suddenly be much more independent than you probably have ever been before, the second reason would be how difficult it is to be away from home and in school at the same time and the third, socially it is difficult to progress when you are 100% new and have no connections with anyone or anything. Every one of these challenges go away very very quickly, as soon as you see what is really important about this experience (which you will in at most a week) nothing else will matter.  

These “rough” experiences only make being on this campus better. Even if you are struggling you are struggling with other people who are going through the same thing and they are, your good friends. Your peers, the teachers and the madrichim (counselors) make life here so enjoyable that the stress of work and homesickness becomes such a small and insignificant piece of your experience that you eventually don’t even think about it.

My number one piece of advice for people coming on this trip is this: Don’t have too many expectations. Before I came I had all of these little expectations that only created unnecessary worries, you will understand how everything works when you are already here. Make sure to be open to a new type of experiential learning. You will be learning about Jewish history and actually seeing where it happened. For me, it’s a much better way to learn.

Despite all of this information you collect before the trip, there is a limit as to how much it can help you get prepared for this unique experience. You can read and listen to a thousand people about their experiences and you will still will not truly understand what life here is really like until you arrive. I strongly recommend that you make the decision to come!