I started video blogging a couple of months ago, and it has actually done surprisingly well considering I only shared it on private social media... But as much as I love talking, I also love writing. I've missed putting pen to paper (fingers to keypad), so here we are! With 2015 a matter of days away I felt like it would be good to reflect on the past year, and contemplate the future. My first ever blog was a few days before 2012... And it's funny to think of how much life has changed since then. I never would have expected life to turn out the way it has when I posted that first blog. If there's one thing I realised it's that my dreams then were too small. I didn't have the confidence in my abilities then as I do now. I've always been ambitious, don't get me wrong, but I never had that feeling that I could literally do it. I suppose my previous relationship really gave me that "oompf!" My ex, who is now one of my very dear friends, pushed me as I pushed him to reach our full potential. I remember receiving my university acceptance letter, and walking into my first lecture, and it feels like yesterday... But here I am well into second year, Baruch HaShem doing better than I could have dreamed. My average grade for 1st and 2nd year is a steady First, and I'm still pinching myself over it. I had planned to finish my third year abroad - but the only university that did a course matching mine was in the South, too far from family and friends, and a nightmare to commute. One other thing I've realised is good things come to those who wait - I've waited this long and with another year under my belt I will have my Bachelors and we will have more money in the bank, and Ben's Hebrew will have improved.
As for my career, I've honestly been blessed and I feel like I can't take any credit for it, without the help of Henny, Shana and Zipporah I honestly would not have been where I am today. They are a credit to women everywhere and have made me more passionate in my feminism... Watching how such wonderful women can juggle such high-demand jobs and a family is truly inspiring. On January 5th I begin my new position, which is working closer with pre-statemented children with SEN. I can't wait! I've known for years I want to work in the field of education - and I love a challenge. I feel more alive when working with children with a bit of chutzpah (or behavioural problems as doctors like to label them!!) and I have to say it makes me grateful to come home to my son who is so beautifully behaved and such a keen learner. I love my job, but I'm grateful I don't have to deal with it at home. The parents of those children are incredible, they really are. I'm hoping to teach English as a foreign language when I move, whilst doing my Masters degree, and then after my masters, who knows? I'd love to be involved in educational reform. I've always been interested in politics - far more than is normal for a girl of my age - so I think it would suit me well.
Then there's Israel. Always Israel. Haha! It has always been my dream to return, and after watching my older brother make Aliyah last March I just knew that was it. Though I left Israel as a small child, I spent every summer as a child there, running through the streets of Ma'ale Adumim with a tub full of food my aunt had demanded I take with me... Floating in the Dead Sea with my brothers... Wandering the streets of Jerusalem... Hiking in the North and visiting the same quaint village with my uncle Sammy. These are the things I want for my son, the freedom children have in Israel. It's not like the uk, where you're fearful to let your child play out because you can't trust people, in Israel the crime rate is non-existent, quite similar to Iceland. Everybody knows everybody, and children play out until sunset, catching bugs and climbing trees. It's a different life. It's a better life. I'm counting down the months, the weeks, the days, the hours until we return, and until then - I'll just vacation there as much as my Head allows!
Then there's Him. Always a Him! Always a bloody boy stampeding into your life and disrupting the order with their charm and puppy-dog eyes! I met him at the Israel / Gaza protests (well technically the second time, as we briefly attended school together in between us living in Israel at different points in our life.). So there he was in his Kfir shirt, loitering around the hummus and olives that Kedem had laid out for the protesters... Just at the moment the protests were turning nasty... 3/400 pro-Palestinians were charging down the road out of no where, and he saw the look of complete horror on my face.... So what did he do? In true Israeli soldier style hoisted me up on his shoulders, Israel flag in hand and took me right to the front. I nearly had a heart attack, but I was so busy laughing I didn't care. That was that. In he strode into my life with his booming voice and slick Hebrew chat up lines and I was sold. We spend our nights talking about our home in Ma'ale adumim (he wanted to live in Ariel but I'm the woman so I won), and places we want to get married (his mum wants Maccabi but I insist on Last Drop Village), and we talk and talk and talk and there's never a second's silence and it is wonderful.
2015, G-d knows what you have in store. I can't wait.
