I am excited to announce, for those of you who don’t already know, that on Feburary 4th, I will be leaving for Israel! Now before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, no, I’m not moving permanently, but I will be living in Tel Aviv for the next five-ish months.

I’ve decided to go ahead and participate in MASA’s Career Israel program. Basically, I will be interning in a creative capacity with a company (TBD) 25-30+ hours per week, brushing up on my Hebrew skills, traveling, and basically having a fricken’ great time. It’s something I’ve thought about for a while, and now just seemed like the perfect time. So, I put in my notice at work last week, I’ve got my visa all squared away, and now all that’s left to do is pack up and go.

You might ask, “Gee, why is Netalia leaving her perfectly good well-paying job, her comfortable house, and awesome boyfriend to go work at some company for free in Israel?!”, and I ask myself the same thing. But I came to the realization that 24 was too young of an age to be this complacent. Settling down can wait. In additional to the whole ‘let’s be young and travel’ thing, I also have an obligation to my family. Practically all of my family lives in Tel Aviv. I see them maybe once a year if I’m lucky. I guess this is a compromise, since I don’t intend on moving to Israel permanently, but at least this is an opportunity to enjoy some actual time with them.

Some of you may be wondering, “But wait… is Greg coming with you?”, and the answer, unfortunately, is no. Greg and I have a wonderful relationship, and being away from him will be difficult for both of us, but he understands that this is something that I need to do for myself.

And so, I hope to see everyone in Florida before I leave, and for those of my friends and family in Israel, !הנה אני בא