8 April 25 • 2019
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T
hroughout life, change is inevitable.
Sometimes change comes smoothly
and naturally, and other times change
comes with various challenges. Some changes
are positive, some are negative, and others
are neutral. Life is all about
changes because that’
s how
we grow.
Can you imagine if we
never changed from the day
we were born? We’
d all be
infants! Change can be hard,
but nothing is harder than
staying in a place you have
outgrown. Change can be
extremely uncomfortable because often you
must take chances and give up certain things.
Last summer, I experienced my final
summer as a camper. I had a difficult time
at camp because I was experiencing internal
challenges — namely, I was changing. Since
the age of 7, going back to camp every sum-
mer was a given. I went to school and then I
went to camp. I spent my difficult moments
at school looking forward to how happy I
would be at camp. It was where most of my
daydreams took place. It was my haven. I will
be forever grateful that I was able to spend
nine consecutive summers there.
Even though I struggled at camp last sum-
mer, I never questioned not going back the
following summer for the coveted CIT year.
Yet, I could not figure out why I was having
such a hard time having fun. Camp was
exactly the same — it had not changed.
However, I felt my camp friendships shift-
ing. I felt myself disconnecting from activities
I once loved. I couldn’
t figure out what was
happening to me.
It wasn’
t until I came home that I felt how
profound this change was. I was sad; I was
confused. I was grieving for the best senior
camper summer that never was. The week
between camp and school was the hardest
week of my life. I experienced countless emo-
tions and, at the same time, I had a ton of
summer homework to complete. I was almost
grieving my camp summers. It felt like the
end of an era.
I spent hours crying, feeling depressed and
angry. Everything felt so different. I didn’
t
recognize this “me” that felt differently about
the place I spent nine years loving. My dream
of having the best summer was defeated.
I did not yet understand that I was in the
midst of changing and growing, and that
sometimes change and growth involve pain.
It was by some sort of miracle that I was able
to complete my homework. I spent my last
week of summer feeling miserable, taking
notes on history while riding the jarring and
confusing waves of change.
As I started school, I slowly began to feel
better. I wrote in my journal; I spoke with a
few trusted adults; I made music playlists that
soothed my soul. I allowed my changes to
integrate inside of me. To this day, I continue
to improve, and this year has been one of the
best years of my life.
One of my core values is staying true to
myself, and this year I have been myself more
than ever. As time goes on, I realize more
definitively that my needs have changed.
Usually during the school year I craved an
escape, which was camp for me. This year
I find myself much happier in the present
moment. I find myself wanting a different
kind of summer, one that involves seeing new
places, traveling, learning and spending time
with family. Although I still love camp and I
may go back as a counselor one day, my own
personal needs have changed. I have changed.
I will spend this next summer living out-
side of my comfort zone. Although my nine
years at camp have provided me with so
much growth and with so many irreplaceable
experiences, and I am forever grateful, I look
forward to this summer of change.
The next time I feel sad and confused
about why a constant in my life suddenly
feels drastically different, it’
s probably me. It’
s
my soul telling me it’
s time to step out of my
comfort zone. Life is all about growth and
change and learning how to ride those waves.
And of all the life lessons that I learned at
camp, this one may be the most important. ■
Jillian Lesson is a 10th-grader at Frankel Jewish
Academy and a contributor to thejewishnews.com.
She is the daughter of Lauren and Randy Lesson,
and the younger sister to Josh and Corey. She also
is one of the JN’
s inaugural Rising Stars. See the
story on page 10.
from JN online
Riding the Waves of Change
Jillian Lesson
Online Comments
Readers responded online
to last week’
s cover story
on innovations at area
religious schools.
Gail Nachman Greenberg:
Proud to share the innova-
tions happening at Temple
Kol Ami! Thank you for a
beautiful article!
Marcie Bensman: My son
is in the Temple Israel high
school program and he’
s
having a blast. He gets
to pick electives and, this
semester, he picked an art
class and has made some
incredible pieces. I even
told him how much better
it is then when I was in
religious school. Kudos on a
good job, TI!
Suzan Kass Tepman:
Adat Shalom also has an
incredible Hebrew school
program!
Jennifer Sima Ostroff:
Partners in Torah is creating
an amazing learning space
on Tuesdays. My kids ask
to go — even my teenager.
Steven Podvoll: Thanks
for recognizing several
innovative programs in our
community. But I’
m a bit
surprised by no mention of
Temple Israel’
s program,
which now has to rent
class space from local pub-
lic schools.
Editor’
s Note: Look for a
follow-up story on inno-
vative programs at other
congregational schools in
the next few weeks.
The JN welcomes
comments online at
thejewishnews.com
or on its Facebook page.
Letters can be sent to
letters@renmedia.us.
Hypothesis — today’
s prevailing doctrine,
originated by anti-Semitic 19th-century
German academics, that the Bible is just a
messy assemblage of different people’
s texts
eventually clumsily “redacted” into one text
that calls Azazel a demon.
Probably the Jewish people’
s biggest
problem today is that we mostly no longer
think of ourselves as being a holy people.
A big reason for that, I think, are teachings
like this, that make the Torah seem ridic-
ulous.
Choosing between two interpretations
of Torah, one making sense and the other
obviously pagan, barbaric and absurd, let’
s
go with the one that makes sense.
We owe the Torah the benefit of the
doubt, not the denigrating pseudo-science
of the Documentary Hypothesis.
— Michael Dallen
Detroit
Trump Spouts Half-Truths
It was a great day for affluent America Jewry
on April 6 when President Donald Trump
addressed the annual Republican Jewish
Coalition (RJC) in Las Vegas.
These individuals deserved the honor.
They lived the American dream, made lots
of money and gained enormous status while
fighting and tolerating the overt and covert
anti-Semitic barriers thrown in front of
them.
Just think of how great the day would
have been and how swollen the ranks of the
RJC would have been if the U.S. government
in 1939 had allowed the German passenger
ship St. Louis to deposit its human cargo of
937 Jews fleeing persecution at the hands of
the Nazis on American shores?
Yet, for some reason, the United States,
with its huge statute sitting in New York
Harbor begging the world to give us the
people they don’
t want, said, “Sorry, folks,
we’
re closed for business; we don’
t want your
people either.”
Trump hurled his bewildering volley
of half-truths, anger and hate at the smug
conventioneers, and they ate it up, shouting
“four more years.”
But the last straw, for me at least, was
when he told the cheering crowd that the
U.S. borders are now closed to immigrants.
Have these people sunk so low? Now that
they have gotten theirs, they believe they
can walk away from everyone else? That is
not the Jewish credo that I was raised in.
But, for Jews, this game is far from over.
Sure, Trump pats himself on the back for
doing the legally and morally questionable
things of messing around with maps in the
Middle East to satisfy them.
But when a gunman kills Jews in
Pittsburgh and Nazis march in
Charlottesville; and Trump stands quiet and
cowardly before our centuries-old enemies,
then this battle is far from over, or even
won.
— Steve Raphael
Bloomfield Hills
continued from page 5