Page 8 - Issue 29

Thursday evening for games and shtuyot (silliness). It's
hard to describe the feelings this brought up for me;
half a year later felt like everything was different for
me, but exactly the same for everyone else. It was as
though I'd been watching one movie and paused it for a
moment to check out a different one, only to return to
the first. I spoke with people as though I'd never even
left. But all the while, I was yearning to return to my
new life. I was thinking about what my b'nei garin were
eating for dinner and wondering if they felt my absence.
What did the days in the Beit haDfus look like and did
my tzevet feel as though I was just taking a few days
off, or did they internalize how far away I truly was?
What would things be like when I returned home?
Would it feel the same as visiting the US where it
seemed like nothing changed and I'd just put the other
movie on pause?

I was sad that my aunt died, I miss her. It wasn't a bad
visit. I learned how much of an impact she made on
others. I got to climb a mountain in her memory with
my siblings, the same mountain I'd climbed with her
many years earlier. I learned that the best pizza in
America is actually at a restaurant in Anchorage, and
not a Lou Malnati's deep dish in Chicago, and it
definitely doesn't have pieces of corn on it. I even found
a couple of tiny amethysts and gold nuggets worth
about two cents while panning for gold between
Girdwood and Anchorage.

It's good to be back home.