College Admission Essay

By Lisa Greenwald

Don't wanna leave this place
Don't want to walk out the door
we found out who we are here
as others have done before

The wheels of time
they keep on turning
we keep on reaching, we keep on learning
trying to find why we are here
why we return year after year.

I prance around my kitchen with this tune playing over and over again in my head. I sit down, sip my glass of water and remember. I remember to thank my mother, once again.

I hear my own, stubborn voice echoing in my mind. "I don't care what you say, you're never going to convince me. I'm not going, never again." I was a quiet thirteen year old who had just experienced a miserable summer at sleep away camp. The only two positives that I could take away from that summer were leaving early and never having to go back again. I was certain that I would never go back to THAT camp and more importantly, ANY camp ever again. I told myself that I had outgrown camp. My mother's vision and persistence, however, changed my life forever.

My mother tried everything to change my mind about llc agreement. She arranged for a special visit from the camp director. For months, she repeatedly left the application for me at my place on the kitchen table. She would compare me to campers who had gone to Eisner and would constantly tell me, "Lisa, the people at Eisner are like you. You will fit in there; they live Jewishly."

Finally, after months and months of trying to assure me that I would like Eisner if I only gave it a fair shake, my mother made a deal with me. She told me that since I knew that camp the past summer was horrible, almost from the second the buses pulled in, she and my father would stay in a hotel that was very close to Eisner. They would come back two days into camp. If I knew that I was not going to be happy, they would take me home, no questions asked. I thought about it for a few minutes and agreed hesitantly. I knew my mother was never going to give up on this and I also knew that I really didn't have anything to lose. Despite my tremendous fears, a tiny part of me knew that I would like it.

The ironic thing is that I didn't just "like it." I lived for . I sit here four years later and I try to describe what Eisner Camp means to me. Four years later, I have friends who share their lives with me, who I can count on whenever I need someone to listen. Four years later, I realize the tremendous impact of Eisner transcends both its Great Barrington boundaries and its eight week calendar.

Almost every component of Eisner Camp has had some effect on me. Whether it was Israeli Dancing on the basketball courts on Friday nights, with my buddies, learning about what it means to be a Reform Jew, or sharing a rustic bunk with ten other girls, Eisner has truly enriched my life. However, the most incredible thing that Eisner does for a camper is give them the unmistakable feeling of community. Campers eat, sleep, study, dance, sing, pray, run, climb and live together in a for a summer surrounded by people who have embraced the essence of Judaism. At Eisner, I have participated in the most spiritually moving worship services. I have stood on the tables in the Chadar Ochel, the dining room, arm in arm with my friends singing during song sessions. I have participated in Limud programs (Jewish study) which have left me thinking about the topic for weeks and months after the program has ended and I have stood in center camp on the last day of the summer with tears streaming down my face because, "I just don't wanna leave the place."

So, what is it about Eisner that causes me to have countdowns to the next summer? Why do I and so many young Reform Jews return to Eisner, "year after year"? Although, I love going to temple at home and I love having Shabbat dinner with my family on Friday nights, Eisner is the one place where I am completely immersed in Judaism. Judaism is not only something to be studied; it is something to be lived. At Eisner, this is possible.

It has been said, "You never actually leave a place you love, part of it, you take with you, leaving part of you behind." I have taken so much of Eisner with me over the past four years. Now, I can finally say that I have also left part of myself at Eisner as well. This past summer, I was selected for the Machon program, the C.I.T. program at Eisner. My group was called K'tanim, little ones, made up of seven and eight year olds. I knew that although most of them had terrific experiences, they were all too young to really appreciate what Eisner is all about. On the last day of camp, while walking back from breakfast with one of my favorite campers, Karen, she told me how much fun she had at Eisner. She began to cry. Listening to an eight year old girl telling me how much she loved being at camp gave me the chills. Seeing her cry made me start to cry. I put my arm around her and told her how lucky she was that she had so many more summers to be at Eisner. It was clear that "the wheels of time" were definitely turning. Campers were becoming counselors and there were many new campers to take their place; new campers who loved camp just as much as their counselors. Karen understood the magic of Eisner at a very young age. At that moment, I knew that I was able to give one of my campers what everyone at Eisner had given to me; Dor L'dor. from generation to generation.

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