A coincidence that changed my life. I knew about the camp while surfing the internet; Once I saw the website I was fascinated by the program. Whenever I used to talk to previous campers , they used to say that the camp changed their lives and I never understood how. But they were people I trusted. So I went to camp with only two goals : 1) to listen to the other side of the story and 2) to try to find out how a camp can change someone's life .
It took me only four days to understand how. At first, I was scared, terrified, and all what I wanted to do was to go back home; Too much new faces, too much challenges.But they always said trust the process. However, I never actually knew what the process is until the last days, But I had nothing but to trust the process so I did. When I started taking to other campers, all my perspectives started to change.
Yeah, I may have come with no direct contact to the conflict but it has always influenced me one way or another.Through media , friends, family, history: 1967, 1973, Occupation, Sinai, and many other things. So hating or at least fearing the other side with inevitable. But it only take a few hours or maybe minutes for all that to change. When you found out that you share the same music tastes, same favorite games, same ambitions , and even same fears, you do understand that something needs to be changed.
True Peace can never be achieved through conferences or meetings it can only be achieved when people on both sides believe in peace and seek it: I have hope in tomorrow , because my friends want peace and they would fight against anything to achieve it .
Everything in camp had its role in changing my life from the lineup and tables to group challenges and dialogue. Now, I can never imagine eating a meal without the people on my dinner table or enjoying a sport without my dialogue group.
The camp didn't only teach me how to listen, never to give up, how to accept, how to play hockey and baseball but also taught me how to look at life. The process that I trusted succeed in changing me , and who said that process ended the process just started. The three weeks of joy, fun, stress, love, happiness, fear, discovery, and more were only the beginning of an endless process and an endless journey of seeking peace and changing the world. And as John Lennon says in his song Imagine " you may say I a dreamer but I am not the only one " and yes I am not the only one , because I am not the only seed.