Its march third today, this means two things to me. First and for most this is the month of my birthday (22nd) and much to my disbelief I will be turning twenty-one years old. Secondly, and also to my disbelief I have been in the Israeli army three months now, and finished basic training. This past week I have been on a week-long break from the army, which has been incredible. I have had time to reflect on the last few months and come to a few conclusions on how I want to continue. Although before I get to that I will share a little of what I have been up to on my time off. I surfed in the rain with my buddy Daniel at Hasharon Beach in Herzaliyya, had a trip with all the guys from my unit in the Golan—filled with a river walk, hummus, BBQ and beer drinking; it was a great time. I also had some great nights in Tel Aviv with some friends and a couple days at the kibbutz just having some personal time and really relaxing. Now to the “blog worthy” stuff.
The past three months have been by far the toughest of my life, not so much physically (also) but mentally. It’s a different world being in basic training, someone controlling every aspect of your life. Asking permission to use the bathroom, being told when to sleep, eat and every other action in your life. It is not really something that you get used to, but you make your peace with it after a while. Now that I have finished basic I feel that I have turned a corner, however small as it may be, I feel I have accomplished something. I now call my commanders by their first names and don’t have to salute them every time I see them. Nonetheless at the end of the day they are still my commanders and they still order me around and what not, but there is something really good about being treated as somewhat of an equal. Being able to call them by their first name puts you on a similar level with them, maybe not an equal one but at least it’s a big step up.
I start Sunday at combat medic’s course. It is a two and a half to three month course that teaches you to basically to be a doctor in the field. It will be refreshing to finally learn something that is specific to my unit and more than that do something that is without a doubt progress in the right direction.
Its funny when I started this post I thought I would have gobs to say and write about but funnily enough I think I have covered most of it. To conclude ill say this, the weather here is starting to warm up, and everything is green throughout the entire country which makes it breathtaking. I hope that everyone back home is surviving the real winter, especially those that find themselves in Michigan and Nevada.
Much love to everyone and be in touch,
אנדרו
