Pre-trip Expectations
It’s not easy to drop your school, your sports, your friends, your home life, and your comfort zone for 18 weeks. I don’t know what my friend dynamic will be when I get home, I don’t know if my coach will bench me because I’ve been gone, and I don’t know who I will be when I return. I’m putting my faith into AMHSI and JNF for the next 18 weeks. So many aspects of my life are going to be out of my control so soon, and it’s so scary to leave my home life and make that leap, but I’ve also been blessed to even have the opportunity to take this leap.
If I hadn’t applied for this fellowship, in a few weeks I would be sitting at a small desk, in the middle of a sea of high schoolers, in a classroom, learning from a powerpoint about the history of Ancient Rome or how the printing press came to be. I would take notes, do my homework, take a test, and repeat. This monotonous cycle would continue over and over again. Too many times have I heard students say “Just push through it” or “I hate this subject, but I just need to get through this class.” I don’t want to “just push through it” or “get through a class.” I don’t want to be another student stuck in the mainstream flow of high school, counting down the days until graduation. I want to travel and explore! I want to do everything I possibly can, and make the most out of life! Yes, it’s so scary to leave my home, but I’m hopeful that I’ll find a new home too.
In these next 18 weeks, I’m so excited to not just learn about a place, but study a place and then go there. I’m excited to go hiking, and swimming, and shopping. I’m excited to have independence, and freedom, and possibly some new maturity when I return home. I have no clue what the next 18 weeks hold for me, but I’m ready for the adventure.
This week has been filled with lots of packing, organizing, and goodbyes. It’s been pretty hectic, but I know that it will be worth it. It’s wild to think that the next time I’ll be writing a blog, it will be from my dorm in Hod Hasharon.
Until the Holy Land,
Ari Weiner