At the GIVE WEST banquet tonight, two NCSYers shared reflections from their summer experience here on GIVE WEST. Read them here and be inspired as well! THANKS YOU ALL FOR READING!
Speech #1: Mattie Lefcoe (Virginia Beach, VA)
Earlier this year I was talking to one of my very close friends about my summer plans and what I wanted to do. Last summer she went on a cross country trip with her mom and said verbatim “everyone is always traveling to different countries when our country is beautiful on its own.” I never really looked at it from that perspective of that I have such Bracha right in front of my eyes and instead of focusing on that I always saw what I didn’t have. A little while after I had this conversation with her my parents won the ncsy Purim GIVE raffle which means I’m on this trip by the grace of Hashem for free. I took this as a sign that Hashem wanted me to see his wonders that I so called took for granted. When I got here and started traveling and seeing all the amazing things we’ve seen I realized that the experiences of the west coast wasn’t something I took for granted rather than what I have in my everyday life. As many of you know for a while during the trip I was having some phone complications – thank you ima and abba for all your help – yes it was an inconvenience and annoying to not be in touch with my friends but I was forced to look out my window literally and see all the amazing things I would’ve missed if I did have my phone. Don’t get me wrong I was totally okay with getting my phone back. I know that midnight mission was an experience that none of us will ever forget but I want to talk about what it meant to me. As I was leaving when the 11th and 12th grade went I over heard girls saying it was fun and they had such a good time, things like that. It got me thinking about how I felt about the whole thing. Leora Suissa can definitely vouch for the fact that I pretty much almost lost it the whole time we were there. Seeing the pain in some people’s eyes vs. seeing the strength in others. I went from wanting to cry tears of pain to wanting to cry tears of happiness based on the strength I saw in some of these people. When I left I was in pain because I had heard about this part of the world but I never really knew it to be true until I saw it for myself. I don’t like to think of myself of someone who takes things for granted because I know that everything is from Hashem and she’asi li kol tzarki everything I have I need and everything I need I have. Before GIVE I never really had an appreciation for chessed the same way I do now. It inspired me so much everyday to see everyone with bright smiles excited to help others and when I go home I really want to do more for my community. I saw this summer right before my eyes that one small gesture can make a difference for someone’s day.
And while I’m Talking about people who made a difference in everyone’s days Leah, Adina, Rina, Shayna, Yehudis, Daniella, Isaac, Sara, and achron achron chaviv Leah you guys literally made this summer the best summer ever so when ncsy was making the shirts and bags they were talking about u guys.
If I had the time I could go around and say something about everyone and how they made my experience here special and honestly it comes down to the girls who were here. Every morning I would wake up and thank god for the amazing new friends I have. I have learned so many things from everyone whether it was how to dab, how to say Cinamon in Hebrew, or how to sleep for 6 hours at most every night and still be a functional person the next day – well kind of. My point being that I have formed friendships and bonds here that some people aren’t even fortunate enough to experience in their whole lives and to make it even more amazing I got to know all of u and spend time with all of u while having the time of my life.
Speech #2: Eliana Raskas (Silverspring, Maryland)
There is a Hebrew saying אל תסתכל בקנקן אלה במה שיש בו ; we are not supposed to look at the outside of a jar but rather what is inside the jar. Whenever anything new in life comes about, it is very easy for me to judge on a superficial basis without knowing what’s on the inside. Give West has taught me that the inside is what really matters regarding both new friends and the Chesed we did. Over the course of this summer at a few of the Chesed opportunities, the people leading the program for us, had previously served time in jail. Once they revealed that to us, my initial reaction was to distance myself from them. However, after seeing an inmate at the LA food kitchen, and Carlos from midnight mission, and how both of them turned themselves around and made themselves such better people after their time in jail, my perspective changed. Those men were a lot more than just their jail record. They were men who transformed themselves and became such better people on the inside and I can learn so much from them. If they can completely change themselves on the inside then I can take small steps to improve myself and my way of treating others. However, this idea regarding judging based on what is in the inside is not only about people; it was also very relevant for our Chesed activities. Remember places like the midnight mission or the old age home where a lot of us were not so excited before we went in. Some people like me were nervous and overwhelmed. However, once we had done the activities, we all felt super accomplished and felt like we had achieved so much. This new perspective which we gained through doing Chesed, is one that will stay with us forever.
As our favorite song from give west says:
העושה מצוה אחת קטנה בשמחה
יגלגלו לו לעשות מצוה גדולה מהראשונה
Someone who does one small Mitzvah gets a little bit of happiness; but it will lead him to do a mitzvah greater than the first one. I feel that all these small Mitzvahs that we have been doing throughout Give West, will lead all of us to make a greater difference and to do even more Chesed.This program is hopefully just the beginning of our life of giving.
But these Chesed activities and touring would not have been possible without all of you .You all added so much to my summer and made it a truly amazing summer for me. I really cherish all the friendships I made and really hope we all keep in touch.
We are all also super lucky to have had an incredible staff that really saw us for who we were on the inside. They all saw the greatest potential in us and helped bring it out over the course of this summer.
To our 5 amazing advisors: You guys are the best!!! You made amazing Chaburas that taught us all so much and it was so fun to chill with all of you this summer.
To the best assistant director, Sarah: Thank you for making incredible rooms, leading inspiring shabbos discussion topics and groups, and for always just being around to talk to.
To Daniella and Isaac: Thanks for being such a devoted camp mom and dad. The food was amazing throughout all of camp and thanks for just being there to talk to and listen to all of our food requests!!!
To Leah, the most incredible director I could have asked for: you were such an inspiration to all of us throughout the whole entire summer! Your amazing shiurium, your inspiring stories, and your time and devotion is really what made this summer one of the most inspiring Summer’s for me.
Overall, I would like to thank the entire staff as for making this the Best.Summer Ever.
So my Bracha to all of us is that we look not on the outside of the jar but on the inside. That we don’t just judge and look at things by their cover. It is looking inside of people and only judging after truly experiencing that will help make the world a better place. Hopefully, all of us will continue to increasingly take on more Chesed challenges wherever we are, so that together, we can take on the challenge of making this world a better place.