I was extremely nervous about attending this weekend program because unlike a lot of my peers in the post MBI shicva I did not go on MBI last summer. (The Israel immersion summer program HDNA runs.) Why I choose not to go is in and itself a whole other post, so lets gloss over that. However, I was nervous because I felt that it would be extremely hard to be the newcomer of a group of kids who all spent last summer together in Israel, and all already knew a lot about one another. I was happily wrong.

In total there were about sixteen campers who attended from my schiva. (5-6 from each machaneh.) In the scope of how many are actually apart of my national kvutzah this is not many (total is about 120).  However, it still felt overwhelmingly large to me. Yet, almost right away I felt so welcome and embraced by the other kids in my kvutzah. It was so easy to talk to my kvutzah and by the end of the weekend I felt like I had known these sixteen kids for a long time. Habonim Dror does this, it gives us the ability to connect the common threads of our lives with the life tools, morals, and lessons we learn every summer. (as corny as that sounds its really true.)

Regarding the actual programming it was so cool to come together with just the three oldest schavot to learn and just hang out. It was nice not to have to worry about being around younger kids and it was really nice that the programming itself was sort of leadership themed. We did some really cool poulout (educational activities): There was one that took place with just my age group where we discussed what it means to have good hadricha and what it means in the scope of being a role model not only to younger kids but how it ultimately effects you personally in the long run. We did another one where we split into groups that were a mixture of the three age groups during which we watched three videos about what it means to be a leader vs. a follower and the importance of all the roles a person can play in relation to whatever collective they are apart of. At the time I may have been cold and hungry but looking back both of those activities were very cool, and I know they'll be useful this summer when I start writing my own polout.

Finally it was just so supremely cool to hang out with kids from the other camps. I always love when I can learn more about the way our common habo traditions differ from machaneh to machanech. Since we were at Galil during this program we did mostly Galil traditions, and while I really missed the way we do things at good ol' Na'aleh it was cool to do something different too.

If you liked this sort of reflection post (and congratulations if you actually read this far, seriously.) then let us know by liking it. We do these sort of programs all the time, and with Spring Seminar coming up in May let us know if you want to see something similar for that program. I am also going to post a photoset of picture I took at East Coast Mifgash following this post, so be sure to check it out.