As travelers-we’ve all had that one special trip. For some it might be with families while for others it might be on a group trip or even a solo adventure. It almost doesn’t matter where or how as much as the effects of that journey. I knew I wanted to go to Israel. I knew my parents were afraid for my safety. It was on an organized trip after my sophomore year at Brandeis University that I made it to that special land. There I found a love of travel and it was there that I built up the courage to plan the next big adventure with a few friends to Europe. Exactly twenty years later (almost to the day), a former student of mine had a similar experience. She too had traveled before, but an organized trip after her second year at university granted her access to Israel and instilled more confidence than she ever had, more independence than she ever knew and a love of travel that has truly taken flight.
Do you remember the trip that did that for you? Can you pinpoint the moment it happened?
So many places…so little time!
I met Sarah Hecht when she was fourteen years old. She was an exuberant student at the high school at which I spent more than a decade teaching and advising extracurricular clubs. As a freshman, she ran for office in the class of 2012 (I was the advisor) and won the title of Treasurer. An energetic teenager, already active on the swim team and in the process of earning her lifeguarding certification, she was not your typical kid. The youngest of three children in a family that fostered education, community-mindedness, responsibility and volunteerism, she spent the next three years of high school planning every class event with a genuine heart and positive spirit. She often reminisced about a mission trip to Guatemala (early in high school) where the project was to give back to the community and rebuild for a few weeks. That trip may have peaked her interest; but it wasn’t until graduating high school, finding her feet at CW Post University, joining a sorority and booking a ticket on a Birthright adventure to Israel that she found the amazing gifts of travel. Here she shares her reflections of her first trip to Israel and what those ten days of constant smiles meant to her. Read the rest of this entry
The Gift of Travel 