The first thing to do now is send a huge Thank You - תודה/Todah - to everyone who helped me along these last two years and a few months. Especially dear friends and classmates who helped me in that last push for the degree, but everyone who studied with me, hosted me for Shabbat meals, gave me rides between Jerusalem and Beer Sheva, believed in and supported me, edited my papers at all sorts of odd hours across the globe, and made this just an amazingly fun ride that I'll never forget.
My sweet dad called me the day before my first exam almost two years ago to let me know the cancer had come back. Needless to say, it was all uphill grade-wise from that first wave of exams. I pounded out the 2010 fall semester despite many a late night of postseason baseball during the first month of class (let's just say I had a ton of catching up to do in Statistics), made a quick visit to Dallas before the spring term, and then got the dreadful news that I needed to go right back to Texas for a final visit to dear Dad.
Since my return, I've done my best to dedicate my studies to Dad's blessed memory. And I'm darn proud of myself that I pulled it off! I learned a ton (so much Hebrew!), met incredible people, failed three times at the Hebrew exemption exam before knocking it out with the Ben-Gurion home court advantage, and am so glad I listened to everyone who said Ben-Gurion is the place to be as a student. Man were they right! So tomorrow night's Shabbat dinner and afterparty will feature a steady flow of champagne to celebrate in style, כמו שצריך/cmo sh'tzarich ("as you need to" is the literal translation).
But if all that wasn't anticlimactic enough, now I have to wait until...June 2013 to get the diploma! That's just how they roll here in a country where you can often turn in a paper months late, but only until December 31. So Monday night I'll celebrate with my friends who finished everything by New Year's Eve 2011 at their ceremony...who's coming to party with me in Beer Sheva next summer?!?
So now that I can fondly reminisce on the journey, here are the two big student videos from 2011-2012:
"Shit that students say" (we don't have mascots here, so you can't throw a "Wolverine" into the title). The very relevant line for this guy who didn't always manage to get his papers in on time is at 1:43- "טוב, די, הפסקה tov, dye, hafsaka - enough, break time." As you can see, Yael's paper includes only a title!
And that one refers to the previous satirical music video: Empire State of Ben Gurion, a take on Jay-Z's song about some city on the east coast.
So now that I at long last don't have a paper to write (!), I can get back to basics, blog more, go back and get some great pics up here, and of course continue to work for Project La'ad, helping South Israel's Holocaust survivors to maximize their rights and benefits. I'm ready to take on new challenges, and as I learned from my best friend from the program, Amiram, "לאכול אותם בלי מלח - le'echol otam bli melach - ~to tear it up (literally to eat them without salt)." Or as I used for my anthem for the last exam in March, "אלף כבאים לא יצליחו לכבות אותי - elef cabaim lo yatzlichu l'chabot oti - a thousand firefighters couldn't put me out." I discovered that 1980 Doda classic by Gidi Gov and Danny Sanderson on the radio on a long winter drive from Beer Sheva to Zichron Yaacov. I'm feeling empowered, a feeling typefied by this Avraham Tal song, מחוזקים לעולם - m'chuzakim le'olam - forever strengthened:
I'll leave it at that for now, already missing being a student at Ben-Gurion, but believe you me...the best is yet to come!
As I go to bed, I'll throw in one last video, one that will never, EVER grow old; one that I'll be able to watch over and over and from which I'll be able to draw inspiration until the day I die:
שבת שלום לכולם/Shabbat Shalom!
אריק/Eric
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