Fresh Start

3,2,1, Wheels up.
I looked around me on the EL Al plane departing from JFK containing me and 18 other kids also leaving from JFK, about to embark on the adventure of a life time. I was terrified, scared, nervous, excited but most of all, beyond thrilled to be going on a plane back to my home. Israel was awaiting my arrival and I could feel it in every ounce of my body, heart, mind, and soul that the next time I was on the ground I'll be in the best place on earth, and my home for the next 4 months. I knew TRY would be a much needed fresh start, reset, unique, new, and outside of the box experience but that didn't help my initial minds much. Now, lemme tell ya, as excited as I was to be going, I was scared beyond belief. Meeting 43 new people who I'm all the sudden supposed to become best friends with and make life long memories and live with for the next four months is an incredibly daunting task, yet one I was just thrown into. Meeting everyone at the Ben Gurion airport after a long, overwhelming and intense day of travel made me wanna run for the hills, but I'm here to tell about it so I guess I made it through okay.
The first few days felt like weeks, each with long hours, intense schedules of orientation, meeting people and remembering names broken up by meals and the few hours of sleep we got. We all bonded over our mutual exhaustion and hunger. I made new friends and having people by my side made this entire process much easier. We began our Israel Core Course (ICC) class on day 2 and quickly began anticipating our first tiyul, trip, to Be'erotayim a place on the negev, desert, we were going to be spending some of our first moments together.
I continuously think back to my sobbing spell in the STL airport after EMTZA USY Winter Shab had ended, I had said good bye to my best friends and began embarking on this journey. I felt as though going on TRY was going to be a huge mistake, boy was I wrong. Although I am only one week in to this four month journey, I can confidently say TRY is one of the best decision I have ever made for myself. I am in constant awe at the people I'm with, the place I am living in, and the country and culture the surrounds me. I'm TRYing it and loving it and can't wait to see what the rest of the whirlwind trip is gonna bring me.