By Tanya Loss, Destination Israel
If you had asked me years ago where I saw myself in the future, I would have never thought my answer would be Israel.
My journey to Israel began about a year and a half ago, when a friend told me to check out the Masa Israel Journey website for potential post-college plans. Little did I know that clicking a few buttons on the homepage, along with a few convincing phone calls, would change my life forever.
At that point in my life, I was so unsure of where to start when it came to what happens after college. Israel seemed like a wonderful idea, but not a reality that I could grasp.
Still, I found myself applying for internships through Masa Israel. This led to a phone call with Samantha Robins, a Masa Israel recruiter. She was so helpful and reassuring about my pending future in the “real world” that I already felt at ease within our first few minutes on the phone. With Samantha’s help, I decided to take my chances and apply to one of the most coveted journalism internships Masa Israel has to offer: an Editorial Internship with Time Out Israel.
After many rounds of interviews and emails, I was able to land the editorial internship of my dreams. At that moment, Israel became a reality. Though I was unsure of what would come next, things seemed to finally fall into place. Within two months of accepting my internship at Time Out, I was on my way to Israel to begin my five-month Tel Aviv Internship Experience with Destination Israel.
The program was more than just an organized way to get settled in Tel Aviv . Rather, our group of forty strangers from the world united by our experience in Israel became a family. My Destination Israel family played an enormous role in my time here. From potluck Shabbat dinners to spontaneous beach days at Gordon beach, it was truly a never-ending adventure.
As five months flew by, I knew my time in Israel hadn’t reached its expiration date just yet. Once the program sadly reached its end, my internship then turned into a full-time job and life in Israel became more real than ever.
Somehow over time my fears of what came next had faded, and life in Tel Aviv taught me to expect the unexpected and go with it. Now, one year since my journey in Israel began, I am no longer the confused post-grad I was back then. Thanks to Masa Israel and Destination Israel – and the many, many people who helped along the way – I am more ready for the “real world” than I could have ever imagined.
Tanya Loss (pictured right) is originally from Tenafly, NJ. A few weeks after beginning her full-time job at Time Out Israel, she met Samantha, who was in Israel staffing a Birthright trip, by coincidence in Tel Aviv.
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