Are you fearful of the challenges that lay ahead of you in college or worried about the stress you’ll face in the coming school year? While these and many other feelings are rational and normal concerns for a teenager to have, consider this: Toward the end of September, 18-year-old Josh Pankin will be traveling to Israel to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), committing himself to three years of service to protect the Jewish homeland.

It is Tuesday, May 16, and two weeks from today I'll be going to the airport and flying back home, and Year Course will be a thing of the past. But it's hard for me to sit here and try to sum up the year for this last article, because I hardly feel like the year is even ending. The days here in Sde Boker go on, one by one, as normal. There's no packing, no frantic picture taking, no last trips to this place or that place–no change. I'm sure this is not the case for everyone on Year Course, and by the time this article makes it from my laptop to the Internet, for me either.

It seems like only yesterday when I was waking up early in the morning, making my sandwiches for lunch, going to school, and then playing tennis in the afternoons. Well, that's because it was yesterday. The last time you heard from me, I was an American in Petach Tikva. I made the most of my Israel Experience phase of Year Course, coaching table tennis and exploring this foreign country. Just as my Israel Experience ended, so did my seclusion from society.