Senior Year in my high school is a pretty sweet deal.

We have Finals the first week of February, Prom is a week later and then, the real fun begins. Students either have the option to intern for three months or take part in special program called Neshama.

Neshama is a journey that takes you to Poland for a week and then Israel for three months. Over the course of the trip, you live in the desert for days, hike from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea and meet Israelis from all over the country.

Sounds amazing, right? However, the decision to go on the trip was really difficult for me. Leaving meant that I would have had to quit my competitive dance team, given up my Presidency of my USY Chapter and, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend three months across the world. Especially while I was trying to decide where I was going to college.

So, the night of the deadline arrived and I was up all night with my parents and I was crying a lot and I was just feeling really lost and torn. But then I listened to a friend of mine and this very wise blonde told me that life is what you make it and I should make it rock.

Yes, you guessed it. It was Hannah Montana.

Once I decided to go, I was really excited but also incredibly nervous. I had a lot of expectations for this trip; what if it wasn't what I thought it would be?

And, as it turns out, when we landed in Poland, my worst fears came true because Poland sucks. It might be my least favorite place in the entire world; it's ugly, the food is disgusting and it's just full of horrible memories.

At least, those were my thoughts at the beginning of the week. By the end of our time in Poland, I had a whole new perspective. After visiting Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz, I saw just how well the Nazis preserved their death camps, but that also made me realize that the Jews have preserved their memories just as well, if not even better.

There's a budding sense of hope throughout the country, as they try to re-build what was one of the most flourishing Jewish communities in the world, Kraków, and that's pretty inspiring. If a destroyed city can slowly re-build itself from scratch, imagine what we could do in our already existing and thriving communities back home.

Flash forward three months to the end of Neshama. Over the course of three months, I lived in the desert for three days, toured all of the Old City of Jerusalem, nearly died when I almost fell off Mt. Masada, rappelled into a 150 ft. cave full of goat poop and had to hike back up the mountain, and got up at 4:30 in the morning, only to find out that they cancelled the hike.

But in all seriousness, this trip was the experience of a lifetime. It was weird; my senior class was so small, only 46 kids, but before Neshama, I had never had a real conversation with over half of my grade.

I'm really glad I changed that now. Additionally, I met my Israeli family for the first time while we were here, and while I was there, I figured out some stuff. My cousins do not speak any English, but it wasn't an issue. When I wanted to talk to my cousins, and English was out of the picture, it didn't matter, and that was awesome.

Now that Neshama is over, I can't believe I ever considered staying home. Neshama challenged me in more ways than I could have ever imagined, both physically and emotionally. Before we left, everybody told me that this trip was a three-month break from reality and I should take advantage of that. No offense to everyone, but you were wrong.

True, Neshama is three months off, but rather than a break from reality, it is an awakening to reality. Neshama throws you in situations that you'd never expect to be in; whether it's living in the wilderness for days or conducting a conversation in Hebrew, it's miles out of your comfort zone.

As you undergo these experiences, you start to figure out who you are, or the person you want to become. Because of Neshama, I am better prepared for the future and I know I can handle any obstacle put in my way.

So heads up George Washington University. I hope you’re ready for another three years.