Tuesday, July 2, 2013

A Little Fairy Tale

     Once upon a time there was a group of people that came together due to a mutual interest in helping people. They came from different places, most hours and hours away, to engage in a program and learn more than they had before so that they could pursue careers that they anticipated loving. Each of these people ended up in this particular place, in this particular program, for various reasons, and those reasons are irrelevant for this particular fairy tale.
     Within this group smaller groups formed. The smaller groups were fluid and often able to come together, separate, swap members, swap back and generally get along. The larger group and the smaller groups were good spirited, generally happy, worked well together and the people within them  somehow seemed to grow to care about one another very quickly. Their caring was shown frequently and genuinely. These people were in a field of caring, and they did seem to fit in.


     This particular smaller group had grown close and studied together, cared for one another, and were reliable when it really counted. This group was made up of three girls and a boy; Nicole, Carla, Andrew and myself. The winter months came and this group had a sad matter brought to their attention. Hanukkah fell early that year, and made it so that Carla, who happened to be Jewish, would not be able to spend it with her family. Instead she would be spending the time of celebration studying, states away from her loving family. Andrew told Nicole and myself about the unfortunate timing of these events, so we had no option except to act. This little group had grown close for a reason, and the reason was that we already cared.



     Andrew volunteered his apartment, Nicole her sneaky friend skills and her car, my mother food and a little bit of funding, and me some mediocre cooking skills and enthusiasm. While Carla prepared to spend these 8 nights of celebration alone, away from her family, knowing that they would be spending this time together while she did her best to learn, we went to work. The three of us snuck around behind Carla's back to learn everything we could about this very traditional holiday as quickly as we could to throw together a surprise to help one of our friends be just a little less homesick during a holiday we didn't necessarily understand.


      In addition to bringing it to our attention and volunteering his apartment for this surprise, Andrew helped us by speaking with his family and friends to find traditional music and other common rituals that we might be able to pull off. He let me come over early to decorate his apartment somewhat sparsely (you have to remember that we were still poor college young adults) in the traditional colors and with Hanukkah decorations that my loving mother (who hadn't even met these people, I might add) found for us. I brought recipes that I found online, and hoped that Carla could help us with them since they seemed a little more complex than I was used to. Andrew also surprised me with a box of chocolates as a gift to my mother for helping us pull some of this together.



     While Andrew and I scrambled to get this little party together, Nicole did her part. She picked up a somewhat saddened Carla for our scheduled study session. Carla had been putting on a brave face for us, but we all knew how sad we would have been if we had to miss Christmas with our families. Nicole and Andrew pulled off what may have been the most difficult part of this whole little plan, which was convincing Carla that she needed to come up to the apartment instead of just picking Andrew up. We worked together to bring a little light to the festival of lights that one of our friends held dear. 





At one point, Andrew even confiscated my phone.


 Anyone who knows me knows that this was a dangerous move for him to try, but I let him keep it for a bit so that we all could dedicate our attention to our darling friend.


     It isn't time for Hanukkah again. I haven't even seen these people in over 2 years now, since I graduated. I don't even know what made me think of that darling evening that spread so much sweetness and caring between the four of us. This celebration was during our very first semester together. Following that a lot of things happened to push us closer together or pull us apart, but no matter what happens, I'll always remember my Hanukkah. 


The End.

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