One Thing Ending Is a New Thing Starting

February 15, 2022
Gal Rubel

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Class of 2025

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Imagine that every moment of your life gets written down in a book. You can choose the cover, the font, the size, everything. From your breakfast 300 days ago to your last BBYO program or workday. In every novel there are different chapters: your high-school experience, your BBYO experience, and every single day, everything is a chapter, and everything gets written down.

Sometimes closing these chapters is awesome, like when you close a really bad day or when you get a great opportunity, but sometimes closing them is sad and almost nostalgic. I just completed one of the biggest chapters in my life, I am officially done with the youth groups in my community, and in a few months, I will start training to become a Madrija, which is and always has been a dream of mine. Looking back I see so many of my lasts, my last winter camp, my last mifgash (a one-day camp), my last group of advisors, my last Saturday activity, my last time buying a snack to share. It is crazy and unbelievable. I am usually not a crier but just writing and remembering that day is sad. However, I should not be upset because it's over but I have to be happy because it happened.

Sometimes we can choose when we close these chapters, like when we change schools or when we go to sleep at night. But some chapters will close themselves and you will be in the middle of a sentence and that is the way it is. When you can't close the chapters willingly you just need to keep writing on another page.

When you are able to close that chapter, no matter if you are sad or happy, you need to keep writing and start new projects because that is the key for you to develop and continue with your own book. This book includes the characters you know, the spaces you go to, and everything that you have ever known in your life. In all of these chapters, I had mentors that marked me forever and who made me the person I am today. I am going to miss them but they will forever be in my book.


I am currently in the process of ending a special chapter of my life at a place I have called my home for 14 years. I spent 40 hours each week here and holidays, too.  I went to camps with these people and I can't imagine my life without them. I know this is an important step for me. I have opened so many awesome chapters this year like  BBYO and being on board, but I am still sad about all the chapters I am closing. Even though they are ending, I will always remember them because, as Avicii said, "these are the nights that never die."

Gal is a BBG living in Buenos Aires, Argentina who is in love with outer space.

All views expressed on content written for The Shofar represent the opinions and thoughts of the individual authors. The author biography represents the author at the time in which they were in BBYO.

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