Over this last weekend cohort four spent its last nights together at a Diller event. With this in mind we all prepped to have the best and most meaningful weekend possible. We arrived late Friday afternoon and braided our own personal challah. After getting ready for Shabbat we all ate our challah and talked over Shabbat dinner, totally disconnected from Facebook, Twitter, and the outside world in general.
Saturday morning began with breakfast and a nature hike from the wonderful Gabe. We are still not totally sure whether or not he has a last name. One of the highlights of my weekend occurred during the following free time when about 10 members of the cohort and both staff members that accompanied us took part in one of the most honorable and graceful forms of sport: water-football. After Felicia led the cohort through outdoor training we then ate dinner and had a bon-fire with s'mores.
The general consensus of the group was that what occurred after the bon-fire was the highlight of our weekend: a ma’agal led by Jonathan Schermer and Lindsay Gorby. Without staff present, Jonathan announced the prompt and we began. Three hours later Chris was forced to break the ma’agal up because it was almost morning.
This ma’agal truly captured the essence of the Diller experience. In those three hours, 19 people that society would call “children” showed sides of themselves that could not have been farther from childish. I listened to people laugh, cry, and tell their life story and I began to realize that I was sitting among family. These are the people that had been with me from the initial awkward hellos (or silence) to what I expect to be tearful goodbyes. I cannot put into words how meaningful that ma’agal was to everyone involved, and I could never tell you what was said in the circle of teens because those words will never leave that circle, scouts honor.
After about 3 hours of sleep we all arose for our final morning at camp wise. After breakfast we all made great progress on our tikkun olam projects. After packing and eating we had our final ma’agal as a cohort and then boarded the bus. On the bus I recall Felicia saying that this was her last Diller event that she would be at before she left for college. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank both Felicia and Orly for everything that they have done for all of us chanichim. I have always felt since Day 1 that I could go to either of you with anything, and I know that in the future I will have a lot of questions for you as well. From EKC, to the AJL, to the top of Masada you have always been there with us, and always been a constant. I think I speak for all of the fellows when I say that the last three months of cohort 4 will not be the same without our JCs. Thanks for everything.
Henry Cohen