In the Greater World sans Parental Units

Well it has been 3 weeks since my daughter has returned from her 5 week trip to Israel this summer with peers.  Some of the initial exhaustion and excitement has abated but much will linger and sort itself out as she moves forward into the hectic school year.  I believe that the experience of travelling, living and working with peers for an intense period of time in your teen years can profoundly affect how you see and live in the world.  When that world happens to be Israel – with its diverse culture, extreme environment (desert), difficult politics, and milieu of urgency - that experience has its own unique sensibilities.  Trying to unravel and understand these issues with peers was surely exhilarating and challenging. 

An emphasis on positive peer-engagement no doubt helps produce more self-confident young people, teens included!   Practicing skills such as listening, story-telling, arguing, supporting, and advocating at younger ages can certainly prepare a teen for more social success and peer-leadership.  At home, we have tried to do the best that we can to provide these opportunities.  But I also must credit my daughter’s experience at our local Montessori pre-school and elementary school for also providing a strong foundation for these skills.  Her summer experience was the next big jump in honing these skills.  [I should also maintain that positive engagement with diverse individuals of varying ages is also an important set of experiences - a topic for another post perhaps!]



Our daughter avec (with) parent in Israel in her younger years.

Here are some things that I discovered about my child this summer after her intense peer experience:

1.      That she has enormous resiliency and self-care skills – even when feeling anxious, tentative and unsure, she envisioned that she would emerge gracefully on the other side, and did.

2.      That though she is a fairly quiet kid, she built strong positive relationships with both genders.

3.      That her participation in activities involving teamwork, disagreements, and the endurance of a couple of somewhat unpleasant experiences, tested and strengthened her resolve, problem-solving skills and confidence.

4.      That her relationship with Israel has grown and remains strong despite her ability to be critical of it too.

 May all of us continue to grow in diverse ways as we go from strength to strength!