In the beginning

Hello to all who are checking out this blog.
My name is Yechiel. A long time ago, before i can remember, my grandparents moved from Bogota, Colombia, to Israel. The reason for the move was because two of my uncles and my aunt were in living Israel and it was going to be easier for my grandparents to live near my uncles and aunt. Along with my uncles, aunt and grandparents, I have many cousins living in Israel as well.
Ever since that time, I have been visiting Israel once or twice a year. One of the visits, i remember my cousin going to the army. Everyone was so proud of him but also nervous as well. I always looked up to this cousin and i was so proud of him.
Ever since that time, I have wanted to join the army and become more zionistic, so i spent most of my free time learning about Israeli history. Ever since then, I have fallen in love with the land of Israel and everything it stands for. A land that is ours, after years of persecution is a miracle.
Now the time has come for me to join. Last year, I discovered a program called Garin Tzabar (http://www.masaisrael.org/Masa/English/Programs/Tzofim+Garin+Tzabar.htm)
The program takes youths from around the world and helps them make Aliyah and join Tzahal. Since most of the volunteers are from the US, the Garin program breaks up the US into three regions (the east coast, west coast and center.)
Since i live in New York, I am from the east coast. There are 32 people in my Garin. Before we leave for Israel, there are five seminars, where we meet one another and talk about why we want to join. After the five seminars, which usually takes a year, we then go to Israel and live on a kibbutz together. During the first three months on the Kibbutz, we do Ulpan and then comes the enlistment date and we all enlist. Since all the members of the group are considered "lone soldiers" since their mothers and fathers are not in Israel, the members of the group become like a family and a support group.
When it comes time to enlist, we all take he test together and then go off onto different units.