The Question: If the future is now and a special mission required you to travel into deep space would you do it? Could you leave behind your family and friends and all other things familiar? Could you venture into the vast unknown for a purpose greater than yourself?
Since I was a child my brother and I often asked this question of each other. In our minds we imagined that this scenario necessitated the likes of Star Trek or Star Wars. It wasn't until last night as I was helping my daughter fall asleep that I realized I finally had the Answer...
It was a memory that flashed in my mind that evening - my first memory of Asia that I have thought of since arriving here. My husband and I were sitting for many hours in Beijing's international airport awaiting our flight to Korea. The place was huge, white, with very foreign architecture and also happened to be weirdly fully staffed but yet completely devoid of passengers. We found rows of benches near our gate and situated ourselves there. Both Nir and I were exhausted from our previous flight though little Ayalah was wide awake and full of energy having slept in our arms beforehand. A Hagen Daz kiosk offered our only kosher food option. And literally SWARMS of employees continually approached us to ask if they could photograph Ayalah with their cell phones. The whiteness of the building, the emptiness of the place, Ayalah's paparazzi and our immense fatigue were all a bit surreal for me at the time. During our travels to Korea and our first days in Seoul I was just so determined. Determined to make it to Korea. Determined to find a home. Determined to get kosher food. Determined to survive and thrive really.
Back in bed with Ayalah, cuddling her to sleep, the aftershock overwhelmed me. I thought of everything that had happened since those first few days and how vulnerable I now know that we had been. We were all alone in a totally foreign place and we had to make it in order to turn our dream for Nir to study robotics into a reality. Until this memory flash I had been really proud of us, how we navigated the job market, the real estate agents, the subway... all the research and prep and planning we had done alone in advance and how hard we worked even once we arrived. Schlepping our new stuff by foot and walking miles everyday with our baby in toe just to find the Costco or the Immigration Office, etc. But, after this memory flash I wept and thanked H-shem over and over again because at any point our plans could have been unravelled. We had simply been so fragile.
For this reason I find it is sometimes more frightening to look back than to look forward. Yet today we received confirmation that our efforts were not for not. Nir called me on my cell at work and told me that the President of Hebrew University in Israel happened to be visiting his university and had been told about the one Israeli student studying there. Nir was unexpectedly escorted into a private luncheon with the President and top notch profs. Before departing the President told Nir to come to Hebrew University when he finishes in Korea. Maybe we will. Maybe we will help Israel some day with the knowledge Nir gains here. Either way, meeting the President today was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Korea is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us.
So, yes, I would go into deep space... I would depart the familiar and venture into the unknown for a special mission.
I know that I would because I already have.
