Having just survived my first weekend in Israel, I feel like I’m starting to settle in a little bit better. Really things are going well here, thank Gd, but it’s still hard to think about the life I left behind in America. I’m doing my best to look ahead and not behind, but sometimes it is easier said than done. Mostly when I am keeping busy it’s good for me and I’m able to be happy. It is sometimes in those quiet moments that a memory pops into my head and I get nostalgic and possibly a little sad.
Those who know me well (or who have had the opportunity to talk to me recently, because it’s been the topic of a lot of my recent conversations) will know that one of the hardest things for me to have left behind was the regularity of my having played volleyball. For the past 2 years, I’ve been playing volleyball every Thursday night in Teaneck. It’s just my thing – Thursday night is volleyball night. I plan around that, knowing that from 8-10:25pm, don’t schedule anything else or plan to be anywhere else because I will be at the Benjamin Franklin middle school gym playing volleyball. This past Thursday night here in Israel, I couldn’t help but be aware of the fact that I wasn’t playing volleyball (even though with the time difference, my 8pm really meant 2pm in NJ/NY so it didn’t exactly match up). In the past month, I’ve started playing every Tuesday night in Hackensack at the YMCA, and even in that short period of time I became connected to the people and the game. No matter what else was going on in my life, no matter how busy I was otherwise or what other plans I had, these games took precedence in my time management.
Here’s an example: In the weeks before I left NJ, my dad would remind me multiple times daily that I “(didn’t) have a clue about how much there (was) to do….” I don’t want to stray too far from my position of oppositional daughter, but I think he was kind of right. Knowing that I am a procrastinator, I did my best to go through my stuff and pack as far in advance as possible, and so steadily for too week’s I made my way through my life’s possessions and started to pack my bags. Each day I would think that I made progress and know that I still had the remaining days to get my stuff done. So the week before my departure was no different. Even though I still had HOURS (if not days) or work left to do, volleyball was still a priority for me. I played a record 4 games that week: On Sunday morning, for 2 hours, I returned to my former High School to play an alumni volleyball game against the current year’s Varsity Team. (I’ve gone back to play with them many times these past couple of years and it has always been fun and a good way to continue to play). Tuesday evening I went to Hackensack to play for another 2 hours in that new game. (The YMCA in Hackensack is actually a cool place and an awesome resource that I feel foolish not to have been taking advantage of for years!) Wednesday night I got my volleyball buddy Leya to schlepp to Ridgewood High School with me for the best game ever with a cool, diverse group of people and a really high level of play. And of course, Thursday evening was spent at my usual game. Despite the ridiculous amount of work that I had to do toward making myself ready to board the plane on Monday, it was still really important for me to get my volleyball fix and push my other responsibilities aside.
Volleyball will play a key factor in my settling down here in Jerusalem, and starting to feel like myself again. I’ve been posting all over the internet and inquiring with good resources in an effort to find a game (or preferably multiple games) here around town. I’m pretty confident that something will come to fruition, but until it does, I will remain a little on edge. In the meantime, my sister and some local friends are interested in bumping around a ball (I now have my own which was my going away present from my former place of work – Thanks Steinhardt Foundation!) so that is fun, and will tide me over for a while. Here’s to hoping that I find something steady soon so that I can continue my own task of finding structure and reliability in my new life!
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