A Sense of Belonging

There's nothing quite like traveling. Exploring new cities, towns, countries, sightseeing, observing how other people live and simply getting out of the daily routine to view what else the world has to offer. In 2008 I embarked upon my Taglit Birthright Israel trip with no major Jewish connection (I stopped going to Hebrew school after my bat mitzvah), no real sense of what the trip was going to be like but knew I wanted to do it independently not with existing friends. The trip was life altering -- I met incredible people from different parts of the United States and Israel, ate delicious food, learned about Israel and the Jewish people and explored a lot of things that I would have never done on my own. By the ninth day of my trip I called my parents hysterically crying telling them that I didn't want to come home. They reminded me that I get homesick in the Hamptons and that I better get on the plane the next day because I had made a commitment for a temporary job. I did. I worked this temp job, saved all my money and returned to Israel three months later to staff a Taglit Birthright Israel trip. After staffing the trip and meeting more amazing people, I lived in a hostel on the beach in Tel Aviv for two months. A year later, after the recession hit hard and the company I was working for in New York closed up shop, I decided to move to Tel Aviv. I got a work visa, an apartment, a part-time job, took a photography class and lived blissfully along the Mediterranean coast...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news