Twenty four hours after landing, it was time to travel 65 miles to my son’s first graduation event, the closing ceremony for his program at the Anieres School in Moshav Nahalal. The event began at 5:30 pm. My son told me I could leave at 3. I left at 2. I have at least learned something over the course of this trip.
The bus trips were relatively uneventful and I arrived at Nahalal about 4:45 and had a 15-20 minute walk from the bus stop to the auditorium. I arrived before my son, not that big a suprise.
Because of COVID and his schedule, I had not seen my son, Ari, in a year and a half. I’d really missed him and he’s not the most communicative person over text or phone, so checking in in person was important.
It was good to see him and meet some of his friends. His eventthat night was the conclusion ceremony for his program, Anieres Academy. His boarding school, which contains multiple programs,, and his school will hold their graduations on July 1.
His growth in self-confidence has been tremendous. He left home as a quiet, bookish, introverted kid, almost the opposite of his social butterfly sister. When he arrived, he immediately had to work on his own to fix his cellphone, which had a bad Israeli SIM card. He did that on his own and I could see then that he was already becoming more independent.
Over the years, he has taken on the responsibility for cooking for his classmates for Thanksgiving, for any event requiring grilling, and for baking cakes and treats for birthdays. Over the past year and a half, he began volunteering for the Youth Village, by helping to care for the horses there. After a few months as a volunteer, they moved him from volunteer to paid staff and began expanding the responsibilities given to him.
In the closing ceremony, the manager of the Youth Village praised Ari in particular for all of his work for the Youth Village. One of the parents who spoke also singled Ari out for being such a brave and good friend.
I am proud of my son’s accomplishments academically for making it through a rigorous program of study. I’m even more proud that he’s turned out to be such a good person, a real mensch.
His ceremony went on for a while. Due to the number of Russian students in his program, there were quite a number of speeches in Russian. Eventually, everyone was called to stage to receive his or her certificate individually and then they reassembled as a group on the stage for a final song.
There was a reception with a buffet line, following the ceremony. I followed my son in to get some food and then all of sudden he wasn’t there. I found a spot to stand and eat and waited and still no Ari. I texted to ask where he was and he said that he went off for a second with friends and was heading back.
On the one hand, I was a little miffed that I hadn’t seen him in a long time, had sat on buses for three hours, and walked for twenty minutes just to get there and he had abandoned me. On the other hand, I was very happy that he had those friends that he could run off with and then still come back to me. Like his sister, he’d built friendships and a support network that would last for years to come. He really was becoming a mature responsible adult.
Following the reception, we went to a short awards ceremony for all thirteen classes in his grade and then it was time for his next event and time for me to find my way to the bus stop. He walked me all the way to the stop, a good fifteen minute walk, and we had a chance to talk about where he was now and where he was going, his military placement and future housing situation. I asked him if he made the right decision going into the program and he responded with an enthusiastic yes. That’s all that I can really ask as a parent, that my children are happy with the decisions they’ve made and the journeys that they are taking.
My Journey to Israel: Connections and Disruptions 