The second we arrived in Israel I immediately felt something inside. A feeling that I can’t even describe, I just felt safe and like I belonged. Before the trip, I wasn’t scared about the war at all but I was scared that I was going to a different country with a lot of people I didn’t know. Throughout the trip we had emotional yet also silly experiences. The emotional ones were the most impactful because they mainly related to October 7th. Personally, being able to go to the hostage service, Hostage Square, and the exhibit at the Anu Museum made the war feel more real. Being able to talk to people at the Hostage Square who experienced October 7th on a first hand basis changed my perspective of the conflict. However, the exhibit at the museum affected me the most. There was a video that had about 5 minutes full of pictures from October 7th and it made me think about how you can’t take anything for granted, and how important having a place you can call home is. On a different note, I really enjoyed staying at the kibbutz with the Kristal family. They were so welcoming and there was never a time where the kids weren’t entertaining us with something. I especially liked that they had a dog because I was missing my dogs a little too much. It was very nice to experience how life on a kibbutz is because there is nothing that we have in the United States that relates to this. Overall, my perspective on Israel has been altered in a way that I feel more connected on a physical level. I think it is very important that we came to Israel, especially during a war, to show the Israeli people that Cleveland stands and supports Israel.