I didn’t really think about it too much until a few months later when my mom asked me what I wanted to do for the summer. She suggested a camp and I suggested Israel. After a lot of convincing and a lot of research about the safety of Israel, my parents finally agreed to let me go to Israel with the group for a month.

When summer finally arrived, I packed my bags for New York City, where I would meet the rest of my group and get on the a

irplane to Israel. At that moment when I stepped into the airport, I had never been so nervous and scared. I was all alone and I had to walk in and make friends with people I have never seen or heard about before. I was really worried about if I was wearing the right thing or if I was going to say or do the right thing when I met everyone. I met a few girls and we got in line to board the plane. The entire plane was NFTY kids to it seemed like I was going to have a fun fourteen hours ahead of me, but I was very wrong. We flew through terrible storms almost the whole was there and the turbulence gave all the passengers on the plane motion sickness. That was the longest fourteen hours of my entire life, but as soon as we flew over Israel, everyone’s mood changed.

When we arrived at our youth hostile, I though there must have been a mistake. There was no air conditioning, no windows, no sheets, and bars on the doors. We were assigned roommates and we were sent to our rooms, or what I called, our cells. It was a disaster waiting to happen. We had twelve girls fighting for one shower and bathroom and no room for anyone to put their bags. They finally came in and gave everyone a sheet that was folded in half and sewn up the sides as our sleeping bag. I do not think I slept for the first few days of the trip.

This trip made me a much better person in so many ways. Not only was it the most fun I have ever had in my life, but I also learned things about myself that I may not have learned otherwise. Today, I go to temple, pray and light candles. Instead of dreading temple, I look forward to going. I am also planning on taking Hebrew lessons in hopes of going back to Israel on my own in the future. I am so thankful for deciding to go to Israel when I did, because the summer after I went, the country became much more dangerous and NFTY didn’t take a group to Israel. I will always remember that summer as the summer that changed my life. I donâ

Some topics in this essay:
Dead Sea, York City, Bedouin Tent, Youth Israel, , Negev Desert, dead sea, trip israel, israel summer,