Priorities

In the 8th grade, when I was 14, I attended a week of communication workshops from school. Not everyone went- it was our choice to apply- and after the school selected the ones that will actually go- we were off to a campus in our city- for a week. We slept there and had workshops every morning, enjoying our almost freedom from the parents for about 5 days. The special thing about this week was that it mixed Jewish high schools with Arab high schools. It was a week about communications - meaning the media- TV, radio, newspaper (I was in the newspaper group) etc. But it also was, between the lines, about communication between ppl. I made some really good friends there - some from my school some from the Arab school - and kept in touch with some of them for a few years.
I especially remember the 1st activity we had- which was suppose to get us to know each other better. I've been to hundreds of these activities in my life, especially coz I was in the Scouts for about 6 years, sometimes I even gave these activities myself, and even though there was nothing special about this 1st knowing each other activity- I remember it very well till today (which is surprising coz my memory is really bad). What I most remember is this one game where you're suppose to define yourself according to the following characteristics: gender, nationality, religion and any quality or other characteristic you think you have. I've done this activity a lot of times- you're suppose to grade the characteristics according to what you believe defines you most. I think that the reason I remember this specific time that I participated in it- is because this time there were a lot more ppl in the group that were different than me in those characteristics. This time we were not all Jewish, Israeli boys and girls. I usually define myself as a Human being first and foremost, then as a woman (in those days it was "a girl") than I list some qualities of mine, then I say Israeli and then Jewish (I think Israeli was right after "a woman" when I was a teenager- that had changed over the years- even though it's still a strong characteristic of mine). It's pretty interesting to hear what other ppl say- especially if they come from different backgrounds. They're explanations why they listed it the way they did is even more interesting...
I remember that in that week- even though I always thought in that same point of view- I understood how difficult it is to live somewhere where you don't feel comfortable using that country's nationality as your own. It only hit me when I noticed that most of the Arab kids either didn't say "Israeli" at all or only as the last on their list. I immediately understood why they did that- I had no doubts about it- but before that- it had never crossed my mind.

The reason I thought about it now was coz it seems like in the next few years I'm not gonna be a permanent resident of my own country. Not gonna be at the place that gives me a part of my identity. I don't feel bad about it- I try to look at it as a good experience for me- but I couldn't help think about those kids that were born somewhere and don't feel like they can actually say they belong there. It made me sad for them, not in a pitiful kind of way though. I think the fact that "Israeli" will always come in my list before my religion - made me think that they don't have a lot of a choice if they don't wanna put their religion in one of the first places, and that made me feel like someone - or something took that choice away from them.
It's very common that ppl get closer to their religion when they're abroad- especially if they are the ones that decided to leave their country. Their kids usually don't understand why they have to keep to certain far fetched rules, and rebel.