There’s a Hebrew expression, כל ההתחלות קשות, that translates to “all beginnings are difficult.”  The significance of beginnings rings profoundly in my head right now. Four weeks ago I started a new semester, in a new country, with a new people, language and culture. Novelty is shiny, glitzy, glamorous, and I was on a high. I connected with a community, an adoptive family, and finally got into a comfortable rhythm.  I had dived into this life in Madrid headfirst, with minimal research in advance (highly unrecommended, for future reference), but somehow things were working out.

And then Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, crept up on me, faster than I ever expected it to. Admittedly, every year I say that it “creeps up on me,” but this year the feeling was different and *new.*

This was the first time in my life I was starting a Jewish year without my family, the people I love most. The people I share holidays, birthdays, bad test grades, and iPhone group chats with. A friend of mine asked me the day before Rosh Hashana, “Are you sad that you aren’t with your family for the holiday?”  “Yes,” my sad, puppy eyes responded. The holiday was going to be great, I was certain; but still, for all that was new and exciting here in Madrid, this holiday season was tinted with a bit of longing for familiarity.

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“This is my first Rosh Hashana without my family, it’s a little sad,” I said to my adoptive family in Madrid as we were sitting around the dinner table on Rosh Hashana.

Not a second passed by and they all responded in harmony, “We are your family!” 

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As I was thinking about how to structure this blog post, the voice of Mia Thermopolis from the The Princess Diaries kept ringing in my head, when in her Genovian Independence Ball Speech she said, “And then I realized how many stupid times a day I use the word ‘I.’ ”

And (I), Zohar, decided that this week instead of writing about all the “adventures I was on” I would dedicate the post to all the thank you’s I owe everyone and everything around me:

1. Thank you to the incredible views of Spain and the cheap bus fares available to those who want to experience them.

2. Thank you for incredible photo opportunities.

3. Thank you to friends, especially those who are there when you desperately need them…

…and those who make the extra effort to make you feel special.

4. Thank you to professors who never sigh, groan, or shake their head when you say you have “otra pregunta,” another question.

5. Thank you to the guy on the train who knew English and helped me figure out what exactly had gone wrong after the ticket-checker got upset at me and a friend for having wrong tickets.

5. Thank you to technology, which has allowed me the pleasure of wishing people a Shana Tova in real time, and an opportunity to catch up on things we’d missed.

6. Thank you for sturdy legs, sneakers, and the cheers I’ve received on Nike+ which allowed me to complete the first 10K of my life.

7. Thank you to a heart-warming, besos-filled, adoptive extended family that has given me more than I ever deserve. Birthday presents and birthday cake I can physically thank you for, but I don’t think I could ever do the same for the love, understanding, and comfort of a warm bed you’ve given me. And my own bathroom to go along with that bedroom.

8. Thank you for laughter. “You’re really going to miss me once you go back to New York,” Taliah, my adoptive cousin, said to me last week. “Um sweetie, I definitely think it’s going to be the opposite,” I replied. “Oh, Taliah’s not going to miss you at all?” Pablo, my adoptive brother-in-law cleverly responded with a chuckle.

9. Thank you to a small Jewish community in Northern Madrid which, along with my “family,” has made me feel like I’ve belonged here for years. I’ve learned, and am still learning about “community” in a whole new way, and also that gummy bears act as a good replacement for a candle when your birthday falls out on a holiday and you can’t blow out the fire.

10. Thank you for causing me to re-question everything I thought I knew about being grateful.

11. Thank you to my family back in New York which has educated me enough to reach the point of introspectively questioning my gratefulness.

12. And thank you to the G-d Who has blessed me with 21 years of incredible life and New Years.

 

Wishing you a meaningful Yom Kippur.