10 more days



Now that my time at MDA is almost up, I have been really kicking it into high gear. Let me just give you a sneak peek into what the past few weeks have been like...
Last Wednesday night I had a night shift (11pm-7am). After that shift, I had a day shift which was 11am-7pm on Thursday. I continued that same Thursday night after the day shift to do another night shift, after which I continued straight into Friday morning for a 7am-3pm shift. Finally, I finished off the week with a Friday night shift that ended on 7am, Saturday morning.
I'm not sure if you followed all that, but essentially I did five 8 hour shifts in the span of basically 2 days (and went 3 full nights with out sleeping a wink). This week has been pretty much the same story. I have no idea how I did it so don’t ask.

By now, I’ve had so many cases (both good and bad) that I can't possibly remember each individual one (side note: Next time you talk to me, ask me to tell you about the first dead guy I saw. I won't write about it because its not very exciting and frankly quite sad, but it is still pretty interesting none the less).
I am starting to realize that a lot of why I am enjoying this experience so much is not just because of the work, which as I said before has brought me immense joy and fulfillment, but rather the team that I do the work with. Throughout the past few weeks I have gotten to know a lot of really awesome people who I will really miss when I leave. I've attached a picture with two of my favorite drivers as an example of exactly what I mean. Everybody here is so friendly and willing to teach me, especially when they see how much I care and how much I want to learn.

The thought of leaving soon still makes me extremely sad. Besides my incredible family back in the states, it doesn't feel like there is anything really worth going back to. Funny enough, when I am away from Israel I am constantly thinking about it and yearning to go back. While I am away from New York, it is only a fleeting thought in the back of my mind. I have no idea where this reverse homesickness stemmed from as I have only been here a handful of times in my life. However, for this entire past school year at Rochester, all I wanted was to be in Israel. This is what led me to be so involved in on campus pro-Israel activism, as well as brought me to the decision that no matter what I do or how I get there, I was going to spend the summer in Israel. I am so glad that I fell upon this program because I have gained so much from being here, even though it's for such a painfully short amount of time. I have 10 more days before this experience is over, and the thought of it ending makes my heart sink to my stomach. I am certainly not ready to leave, but I know that I have lots of studying and hard work ahead of me before my life can really start. Like I have written before, I will try to turn my departure into a positive and use this new passion to plow my way through university and whatever comes after. Maybe then I can return and carry out my dreams here instead.

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