This is not the typical experience you would probably read about.

For a few years I have been looking forward to experiencing birthright. For people who do not know what birthright is, it is a once in a lifetime experience for young Jewish individuals ages 18-26 to visit their homeland Israel for 10 days with 40 other strangers. I have read about people going on the trip and even have had people such as my cousin and an old friend tell me how perfect the trip was. After seeing such spectacular photos and stories, I knew that as soon as I turned 18 I would be heading towards Israel, and that I did with one of my best friends.

Me and my best friend Alisa were so excited as soon as we sent in our application to get into birthright, and we were even more excited when we were accepted! Now we just had to wait a few more months until the actual trip. When the week of the trip came we were all packed and ready for the experience of a lifetime. Now, we have had two sessions with the people we were going to be spending these ten days with, but we didn't really get to know them and how they act. Even in the airport we did not really talk to any of them because they all seemed to know each other already.

The birthright organization has different groups you are able to go with so me and my friend chose to go with ezra, the all Russian Jewish group. I thought we would be able to bond even more considering that we were all from the same heritage, but I was wrong and the fact that they all knew each other and went to the same college trumped everything - so they did not want to even consider taking in strangers.

As the weeks went by I quickly realized how depressing this trip was getting. These people I was on the trip with did nothing but party and drink, and yes that does sound amazing, but if you were there you would understand how this continued on 24/7. They did not care about the culture we were surrounded by, they cared about how many bars they could wipe out. To me personally, that was very disappointing and not how I spend my time.

I was really annoyed and upset that my birthright group was filled with people I would never want to spend 10 days with rather than people who are sweet and actually like to make conversation with people they do not know. Other than that, Israel was such an amazing country. I learned so much about my religion from traveling to different Kibbutz, which is where brave people live - whether it is at the border of Lebanon or Syria, they fight for the country of Israel. Trying all the new foods and tasting the delicious wine was amazing as well as seeing the markets and spending time with the Israeli soldiers.

I know it seems like I had a miserable time, however, I will never regret exploring Israel especially for no cost. I hope that no one has the same experience of the traveling companions I had. I would like to thank my best friend for coming with me on this journey. If it wasn't for you, it would of been awkward as hell. And to the few people I met on this trip who actually didn't ignore my existence, thank you for making this trip worthwhile. Israel will forever be in my heart, as this is not the last time I will be seeing this beautiful country.

Also, I would like to point out that I am in no way telling anyone to not join this program because this was my own personal experience. It may be different for you!