One Moment - Going to the Army

November 23

“Look. If you had one shot, or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment. Would you capture it? Or just let it slip?” – Eminem

Everyone remembers the beginnings of some big journeys or adventures. So much anticipation leads up to the big moment, so much so that we sometimes psyche ourselves out with expectations that don’t come to fruition. Feelings of nervousness, excitement, fear, anxiety are all rolled up into one, which is commonly referred to as “The First Day.”

We have all experienced First Days where we felt all of those aforementioned emotions: the first day of kindergarten, starting at a new school, a sport tryout day, the big game, moving to a new city or country, etc. Even if some of those things didn’t give us only positive outcomes, especially immediately, it all ended up being okay. All of the buildup…and then it happens… Now I have a new First Day to the list – the army.

I’ve said before that I couldn’t really imagine myself doing something like this just a few years ago. The army isn’t a fun thing – we’re talking about guns, tanks, canons…and they’re all real. But all of those imaginary thoughts I used to have are about to be thrown away because it’s all about to be super-real.

Israeli children (for the most part) know this day in their lives is imminent, for better or for worse. But there is something special that my other Garin members and I have in common – this is OUR choice. Nobody else’s When I ask myself what I’m doing here, at this moment, I know why – If not me, then who? If not now, when? I could be travelling in Thailand right now. I could be playing soccer in Brazil. It’s my life and I get to choose what I do, and that’s a beautiful thing. I am doing the thing I know best – helping the Jewish people. That’s how I feel.

Sure, I’m scared. Heck, soon I’ll be riding in a tank that can destroy a lot of things. I would also be lying if I didn’t say how excited I am. This is awesome! I get to help protect a land that needs to be here for Jewish generations to come. I get to be a part of that history, that responsibility, and that is a genuinely great feeling.

The times are going to be tough. Everything in my life is changing. I don’t control when I sleep, eat, or go to the bathroom. In addition, personal time to do things like this and write become close to zero. However, what I do control is my positive thoughts and optimistic outlook on everything I’m doing. All I need to do is remember why I came here to do what I’m doing, and I know I won’t have any problems.

I’m taking my best shot at seizing everything I ever wanted. I’m contributing to the land and the people of which I feel a strong connection. There aren’t many things better than that. No regrets. No fears. Focus on what’s at hand and success is destined. Will I capture this moment or just let it slip? This is an opportunity of a lifetime and I feel fortunate to have it. I’m grabbing on – and never letting go. The Israeli army: this is my time – our time.

Combat is the Best - Part 2

November 9

The next week’s workout (October 2) might have possibly had the most different mentality than carrying the telephone pole. We started by going to the room near where we start every time and grabbing sandbags. Each guy was responsible for carrying a bag of 20 kilograms (44 pounds) and each girl was responsible for carrying a bag of 15 kilograms (33 pounds). We made our way across the road and were at the face of a very steep hill.

Before we knew it, we were instructed to turn in our watches so as to not know how long we would be working for and to go up the hill as fast as possible. Once we reached the top, we were told to go back down and back up until he said to stop. When we wanted water at the top, we still had to maintain control of the sandbags on our shoulders. Our success in this one was individually based only…helping others wasn’t an option and this made it very difficult. Some threw up, everyone was in pain, and finally we made our way down another trail as he said we were done. The only thing was, we weren’t…he instructed us that in the army, it’s not over until it’s over. Another few times up and down with the sand and then it was finally over. We had hoped we learned this lesson well.

At the beginning of the next week’s exercise (October 7), he told us it would be simple because it was before Yom Kippur and people had physical tests for the army coming up. We began running in the fields across from our kibbutz and we covered about 4 kilometers of ground in all while doing about 100 pushups and 60 sit-ups along the way. Then, like every week when we stop, we ate some food and got back in the car. But, in the end, I guess we didn’t learn our lesson from the week before – almost instantly, we stopped, were yelled at to get out of the car, and were ready to go with a stretcher full of about 60 kilograms (132 pounds). We continued with this another 4 kilometers or so and this was a very hard task. Once the brain shuts off the hard task we had of running, it’s hard to switch it back to carrying that weight for a long distance. I was happy I had a chance to feel this first hand, as I’m sure in the army things like will happen numerous times.

The next week (October 15), we began as we had many times before by carrying a stretcher with a lot of weight from sandbags. After finishing this time, we ran sprints and did crawling, and running to different points on the other side of the circle we were standing on. The only thing with all of these exercises was that our space kept getting smaller and smaller, therefore meaning we kept running into each other or crawling on top of each other. Our guide was trying to teach us to focus on the task, not always on other things going on around us.

The following week (October 22), only five of us showed up and our guide cancelled doing anything with us. He said if we weren’t serious as a group, then he wouldn’t do it with us because it wasn’t worth his time. We were all ready to go, however, so we decided to do our own. We were going to run to his kibbutz, get the stretcher and be ready, do whatever he then wanted, then run back. I felt really motivated for this since we were showing him and ourselves we were serious. Yet, I don’t think any of us realized what we were really doing.

It was a 5 kilometer run there and we decided once we got there we were going to surprise him at his house. We put our tallest man (who was trying out for the elite navy unit the following week) on the stretcher, weighing about 75 kilograms (165 pounds). We took a very long route to his house and had our man Gal on the stretcher for 40 minutes. We got to his house and were ready to go. The only thing was he was very busy so we returned the stretcher and ran back home another 5 kilometers. We had just run 10 kilometers and had all that weight on our shoulders for 40 minutes straight without a break. We had also proven to ourselves that we could handle a lot thrown our way.

The finale (October 29) had arrived. We knew for this one we would combine everything we had done and learned to complete the final task. We were going to be doing a pseudo mission. We were going to become the mifakdeem (commanders) and we were going to have to solve everything on our own.

First, we were told of the mission – stopping Arab terrorists by putting a barrier on the road and ambushing them. Then we were off. We used the telephone pole as our barrier and walked with it for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Along the way we had to also try to get everyone over a ‘mine field’ with just the pole as our mode of transportation. There are no breaks with the pole and our shoulders were very much in pain.

Next we set up for the ambush. We camouflaged ourselves and the barrier and got ready to hide and attack. We lied still for 30 minutes and waited but never got our signal from our acting commander. I found it very neat, however, that we all kept our cool and quiet throughout the whole thing instead of messing up the ambush.

After that we quickly threw the pole into the bushes and picked up a stretcher with 80 kilograms on it. We went with this for 1 hour and 15 minutes and did so on very steep hills and muddy, thick plants. Although all of us were at the point of exhaustion, we knew ourselves well enough that we had a little something left in the tank. So when we had to run as fast as we could up a very steep incline after over four hours of physical work, we knew we would succeed, as long as we believed it and worked together. We finished it all and had made the end. Great food and coffee was at the end for us and we talked about the last two months of physicality we had just endured.

See, when it comes to the army, people must throw out their personal pride and substitute it with team and group unity. We had all learned something very valuable. Two weeks from today I’ll venture down to the south of Israel to begin basic training, essentially alone and scared and in shock. But that’s okay…because I have this to lean on amonth other things, knowing (as Stephen Curry, a basketball player from Davidson University says), “I can do all things.”