GOING HOME IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS CHANGE

I was at the counselors' lounge with my lap top thinking of how am I going to transition back to my everyday day life .. when I fell asleep
At 1 am I herd the bell rung a couple of times, and I was wondering what was going on, why is Wil Smith ringing the bell at this hour?(some campers were trying to be ridiculous) . I thought everyone is supposed to be sleeping? I was wrong, I am awake and so are others, We might be thinking of the same thing how are we going to transition back into our everyday life.. for me an adult it might be easy to adjust but for the young campers who just went through vigorous co-existence, respect, team work and what have you in three weeks, might be harder. Across from where I was sitting are two friends one a delegation leader and the other a Seeds Of Peace employee from the region, the employee shook my hand and said she was leaving she was catching an early morning flight , we said the normal 'its nice meting you' blah blah blah as she was leaving to go get ready it dawned on me I will be going through this process all day as the campers and some staff members start leaving in about 4 hours, It was 4 am....
The first bus drove through the camp grounds and parked between where we always line up and the 'filed' people were all over the place hugging, kissing, taking pictures and sharing memorable and priceless moments that happened within the past three weeks, the same spot was busting with music and drumming when the campers were arriving three weeks ago and now its a different story because we have to say good bye..
by the time the last bus left the camp grounds it was around noon and I have tried over and over to hold back my tears either because I saw two campers crying or I got hugged by a camper. I was hugged by this camper who I think is the youngest camper. He came to my notice one day at line up when he was trying to jump over the head rest of a bench he was sitting on, his counselor was asking him to stop and he was smiling . I was sitting right behind him and in my head I was thinking ' gee this kid looks like trouble' as if he was reading my mind he smiled and said ' what is your name' ? I said I will only tell you my name if we will become friends, he agreed and I mentioned my name .. he responded by saying 'my name is 'Z'. since then we have been friends at camp. Today I was avoiding walking into him, but its a camp ground not New York City, it was only a matter of minutes before he came to me with that same infectious smile and gave me hug, I saw his eyes tweaking trying to hold back his tears then my heart gave in, I tried hard to hold back my tears, but the moment was too powerful than me, too meaningful so I let it go, I cried and walked away from the crowd whiles I was processing the moment.

CHANGE

I decided to stay and go home the next day, so that I can come up with my own transitioning plan, back to my everyday life. After dinner I did engaged in bits of chit chats with other staff members before I went to bed early and fell asleep right away.I woke up in the morning and packed all my staff , took a shower and joined others at the same spot we said good bye to the campers the day before, our bus pulled up five of us going to five different places jumped in as the others were hugging us and saying good byes. On our way i started thinking what it means going home for me and for the four others in the bus . One person was going to India, another to western New York, the third to Connecticut the fourth Amman Jordan and the fifth guy I think was going to Boston Mass. I think we are following the steps of the campers as we taking the very first step towards the change we each want to see in our communities, schools and our countries.

Today's quote :

' To be the change you want to see in the world, you don't have to be loud. You don't have to be eloquent. You don't have to be elected. You don't even have to be particularly smart or well educated. You do, however, have to be committed.'
~ author unknown'