As someone who is part of the Big Brother program and a mentor to other lone soldiers, attending the Hebrew ceremony felt like going back in time \u2014 seeing myself standing in the crowd, so excited for what was to come and so proud to be able to protect my country and my people.<\/p>\n
Being there for Even, holding up a big sign that said, \u201cThat\u2019s my little brother,\u201d<\/em> even though he\u2019s actually older than me, put a big smile on his face during the ceremony. At my own ceremony, because of COVID restrictions, no one was able to come and cheer me on. That made it even more special to be there cheering for another lone soldier.<\/p>\n After the ceremony, we shared funny stories from the base \u2014 like how I used to always get confused with directions in Hebrew. Machve Alon, the base where the Hebrew course takes place, will always hold a special place in my heart. It\u2019s not only where I learned Hebrew but also where I learned about Israel and the diverse people who make it what it is. My Hebrew course team included Russians, Ukrainians, French, Ethiopians, South Africans, and Americans, and I learned from each of them.<\/p>\n There is something truly special about being there for someone during such a meaningful moment, but it\u2019s even more powerful when you remember how much that same moment meant to you when you were in their shoes. Now, I get to support them, hold up silly signs, and remind them \u2014 I\u2019m here for you.<\/em><\/p>\n In total, 40 Big Brother volunteers came to the Machve Alon ceremony to support the excited lone soldiers and to join them at the very beginning of a new journey filled with challenges, experiences, and growth in their military service.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A moving story of a former lone soldier returning to Machve Alon as a Big Brother mentor, giving others the support she once needed.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":13277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13282,"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280\/revisions\/13282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/achgadol.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Machve Alon \u2013 Where I Learned Language and People<\/h3>\n
Being There for Others \u2013 From My Journey to Supporting Lone Soldiers<\/h3>\n