By Stella Smith, Bus 8 Participant
In past years at Camp Harlam, many of us have found a comfortable and familiar home to return to each year. For most of us, camp is our personal, sacred place for a short 3.5 weeks, and we look forward to returning each year to familiar people, places, and experiences. Coming to Israel, I felt vulnerable and worried for a few reasons. I was leaving the continent for the first time, I would be living out of a duffel and I’m not an organized person, and most of all, I would be surrounded by people from both sessions, meaning I wouldn’t know half the people I would be traveling the world with. This worry of not fitting in was omnipresent before the summer began. Little did I know that my biggest fear coming into this trip would bring me the greatest rewards.
Creating relationships and making friends is an innate part of being human because who wants to be alone when you can be surrounded by others? The task of making new friends felt daunting because I thought there were so many things people would not like about me. Now 13 days into the trip, I learned that making friends is natural and inevitable in an environment as welcoming as the one I am a part of. Just two weeks ago, I was at the Philly airport, trying to branch out by timidly hugging each new person I met and shyly introducing myself. Two weeks later, I feel that I can go up to any person on this trip for anything. I am rooming with some of the girls who I was scared to introduce myself to just a few days ago, and we are already best friends and closer than I ever expected to be with them. When I hug them now, I don’t worry about what they will think of me or if they will like me, I think of how lucky I am to have these friends. These friendships that were formed in a matter of weeks will last a lifetime, and I have only NFTY in Israel to thank for this incredible experience. Even though Harlam has been my home away from home for as long as I can remember, I now strongly believe I can add Israel to the short list of places that truly have my heart.
