2001 - United Synagogue Youth

ShalhevetWith Love to Bus A 2001...by Missy KimmelmanI always thought that the summer after my sophomore year in high school I would be going toIsrael. Like many parents, mine were uncomfortable with sending me this year. Instead they sent me onWheels.Being part of Bus A 2001 was an amazing experience and one I will never forget. Looking at my65 page scrapbook or my two overflowing photo albums will never make me feel as happy as I was onthe bus. Waking up two hours into quiet time and seeing mostly everyone sleeping made me see justhow lucky I was to be on one of the 8 buses this summer. It was times like those that I wrote notesto myself.I made lists of everything: bus songs, movies we watched, jellybean combinations, everything -but the most important piece of paper is one I started on a long drive one morning early in thesummer. I called “What I learned on Wheels.” This list is one I look at and try to live my life byeveryday.This is one of the most private pieces of my summer, but there is no other way to show howimportant Wheels is and will always be to me without this list:On Wheels, I learned......be yourself at all times....disappointment comes and goes, it does no good to let it linger....choose your battles correctly....take time to notice the little things, that’s what you will remember forever....don’t be afraid of anything, especially new things, new people, and new places....don’t let the past affect friendships in the present or the future....great friends make great pillows....give me a pair of sweats, and I’ll give you a smile....no matter how well you know yourself, there are always surprises....without even knowing it, you can mean the world to someone....true friends last forever....don’t sleep when you can talk the night away....you never know how you will impress someone, or how they will impress you....something can seem like a dream and you won’t know what you have till its gone!Some of these things are simple lessons for you to learn, and others you may have neverthought of, but each of them was right at the time that I wrote them. Without USY on Wheels I wouldnot be the same. A summer like this changes your life. It’s not all about the humidity of the South, theprayers at rest stops, or eating kosher in Nebraska. It’s about the long bus rides where everyone hadfun, the tears the last day, the group e-mails that follow you home, and learning something new aboutyour religion, but more importantly about yourself.21