My lasting legacy

This past weekend, I attended NFTY Northern's Fall Kallah. At the even, six of the best teen leaders Judaism has to offer led a program asking what we wanted our legacy to be. We discussed what the word meant and even some ways to attain one.

As much as I hate to say it, I won't be in NFTY forever. The end of the road is near for me. I will, at some point not too far away, have to leave the organization and move forward with my life. I will move on, as will NFTY. While this is happening, though, I am thinking of what I will leave to it? Will I be remembered for the hours I put into the organization? Will I even want to be?

My biggest legacy came, I believe, at Summmer kallah in August. At the event, after one of my services that I had written and led, I had two participants come up to me and say that they wanted to become RCVPs because I had inspired them. They wanted to follow in my footsteps and do what I had been doing for over a year.

Inspiration is the place where I want to leave my legacy. It is my job to help those leaders come up behind me and take my place when I can no longer lead myself. It is my duty to give my heart and soul to the members of my region to hopefully show them how much I care about them, about the movement, and about Judaism as a whole, in the hopes of creating an environment that will foster their growth to be the next leaders.

I also believe that it is my job to fix the problems that I see. We are, as it is commonly explained, a movement, and therefore are constantly looking to move our organization forward in a positive direction. We must continue to grow and develop ourselves so that we do not become stale. I want to make the changes that I see necessary to the motion of our movement so that it can be a stronger, healthier, more vibrant youth group for those to come. This is not making change just for the sake of making change. It is, rather, the ability to look at the way in which we conduct ourselves and improve the areas that we see need a little work. I want to be able to look back and say I did what was best for NFTY and helped it reach its best.

To those NFTY freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, I hope you see how much passion I have for our organization. I hope you see how much I want to do well for it, and for all of you. And I hope you see that I will need someone to be there for NFTY when I can't anymore. Let it be you.

To those NFTY seniors, it is our time to be the transitional leaders. We need to lead, and let others do so. We need to stand up and be in front, yet also have the ability to train our successor. And we need to continue to put everything we have into the youth group we have always loved.

Summer Sun making fun

Top 20 things to do over summer vacation:


20: Watch 10 movies in three days.
19: Stay up til 2 in the morning finishing your 10th movie in three days.
18: Wake up at 11 every morning.
17: Clean your room for 15 minutes and get distracted by facebook again and again.
16: Get a visit from friends who show up at your door unannounced and have a meeting in their car.
15: Write blog posts a day late and deep into the night.
14:Go for a Slurpee run the minute school lets out.
13: Become a hockey expert overnight.
12: Make a list of all the things you need to do today... and then do one a day for a week.
11: Move your phone charger closer to your computer so you can Skype and text at the same time.
10: Go to Panda Express twice in two days.
9: Play baseball 3 times in a week.
8: Hide school backpack in a corner so it doesn't ruin your fun.
7: Go outside, complain its too warm, go outside and complain its too cold.
6: Stay up until 2 in the morning on facebook.
5: Watch the end of the hockey season, which makes little sense because there is no ice in the summer.
4: Take three naps in one day.
3: Play disc golf four days in a row with your dad.
2: Fly home from Boston at 8 at night and leave for New York at 4 the next morning.
1: Lose your keys at a baseball park at 9:15 at night when it is dark.