From Merekez to Chanich

Before I begin, I would like to update you all. After a tough 2.5 day tryout, where I gave it everything I got, I ultimately didn’t receive anything I was trying out for. In the end I am proud to say that I am serving in the 890th Paratroopers Brigade, and have seven more months of training.

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With camp coming up next month, and despite the fact that I will sadly not be there, I guess this is a good time to reminisce a little from last summer. I had the honor to serve as the Merekez of Bogrim, meaning that I was responsible for all of the campers in my age group, as well as their counselors. It was a position that came with a lot of honor and responsibility, and turned me into a leader where campers/counselors would come to me for help, advice, and anything they might need. It was a job that was given to me from a lot of experience, and one that, as I’ve said, made me responsible for many individuals at camp.

*On base under the Israeli flag at our dorms

Fast forward eight month and flip the switch. Now I am not only not a counselor, in charge of a smaller group of individuals, but I have completely become a camper. I have my commanders (mefakdim) that are directly above me, where I turn to for questions or anything I might need, and then above them is the mefaked machlakah (platoon commander) who is responsible for all the soldiers in our machlakah (platoon), as well as our direct commanders. Above them are more higher positions, but for all intents and purposes we will compare those positions to chanchala (top management at camp).

If we were to compare the camp structure to the army, I’d right now be the commander of our platoon, which I guess is the most direct comparison to a Merekez at camp. However, despite that, I am in fact just a soldier, one month into Tzanhanim, and therefore can best be compared to a camper.

This comparison first of all makes me understand the Israeli counselors’ situation at camp. All of them come directly from their IDF service, and despite the fact that many of them were commanders, officers, served in special forces units, or were handed security clearances to deal with sensitive information; they now came to camp to serve as normal counselors just like the other 17, 18, and 19 year olds. Despite the obvious responsibility, many Israelis at camp see this position as a much lesser responsibility than what they had during their service, which I guess makes a lot of sense.

For me, being a soldier, aka a camper, is weird to think about in the context of camp. I obviously understand why that is so and why I am in that position. I don’t know much about anything, and despite the fact that my commanders are two years younger than me, they are a lot more qualified to be commanders, and I am most qualified, at this point, to be a soldier learning how the army works and how to actually be a soldier like them.

Despite this, it is weird to be told when to wake up, when to take a break, when to eat, how long I have to do something, what I am allowed and not allowed to do, and for my whole self to be completely controlled by other people. In some ways I like it because it makes my life a whole lot simpler, not being responsible for deciding most things in my life. However when I think about last summer, this position I am in now is a complete 180 from camp, where I was responsible for making decisions on a daily basis that would not only affect myself, but my entire age group.

At the end of the day, with anything in life, those in charge are those most qualified to be in charge, or at least ideally that’s so. Whether from experience, knowledge on the topic, or another metric; one can take or be given responsibility. As someone who’s never been in a military system and has little idea of how it works, I am happy to be where I am, even if it’s funny to think about the camp equivalent. The important thing is to learn, grow and improve, hopefully turning me into a soldier that can one day help the next group of soldiers, passing down the knowledge and experience from one generation to the next.