During quarantine, people around the world have come under fire for traveling during a pandemic for vacation and other recreational reasons. I’ve traveled around the world during this pandemic, but not in the way most people would think. There were no planes or cars involved on my journey. I traveled the world, but from the safety of my own home.
This is what it’s like “traveling” during times of COVID.
Over President’s Day weekend, starting on Thursday night, I went to BBYO’s International Convention, a convention with celebrity speakers, a lot of food, fun activities, and joined people from all around the world. There were thousands of teenagers there, and many adult supervisors (as there would be in person). It ended on Monday, and it was the best weekend I’ve had thus far.
There were multiple fun activities, and empowering ones, which included: diversity meet ups, body positivity, food events (baking and cooking on a zoom call, and even debating on topics like whether a hotdog is a sandwich or not), games, and even late night karaoke and a virtual block party on Sunday where everyone showed off their talents. There were chapter events on Saturday night, which my chapter, named after the fierce female Chana Senisch (a poet and Special Operations Executive Member), did a game night, and council Stand Up events, which is when councils talk about a few issues in the world and create a service project to help combat those issues.
There were also many guest speakers and performers there. The opening ceremonies held a performance from Israeli superstar Netta Barzilai, the cast of Rent singing “Seasons of Love” with teens from all over the world, Andrew Barth Feldman, who’s well known for filling the role of the title character in Dear Evan Hansen, and Kesha performed and had a Q&A in the first night. I was in a Zoom meeting the next day for an interview with Jared B. Goldsmith, the current Jared Kleinman on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen, which the theatre nerd inside me was screaming internally the entire time. On Sunday, we had multiple speakers including Amit Rahav from Netflix’s Unorthodox, Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson, the All American cast, Rebel Wilson, and closed out with a performance and Q&A with the famous musician/ DJ Diplo (if you won a meet & greet with him).
Monday ended with a four and a half hour international board election, which I skipped to do homework, but I’m so proud of the people in my council because four of them made the international board, a board made of teenagers from all over the world in BBYO.
We had virtual roommates, and mine were awesome. I had two from New York, two from Argentina, one from Serbia (who lives in Israel right now), and a few from Hungary. We started a group chat on WhatsApp two days before the convention even started, and had a zoom meeting the day before where we talked about pretty much everything. Meeting people from all around the world was amazing. We had a BBYO meet up, which everyone calls BBYOmegle, as it’s just like Omegle, a website where you can meet random people based on interests. On this version, BBYO is the interest, and on it, I met people from all over the nation, the world, even people in my own council that I didn’t know before. There’s even a petition online to keep the service open all year, which is great because I would get to meet a lot more people internationally.
I still keep in touch with quite a few people that I’ve met internationally, and in my council ,through WhatsApp, Instagram, and Snapchat. My roommates and I text everyday on WhatsApp, and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. We also plan on doing Zoom calls once in a while and after COVID is under control, I might ask to travel to New York to meet my two roommates from that region, and hopefully meet the rest of them at a later date when I can travel the world. I dropped my Instagram user in multiple Zoom chats and gained a few followers who I’m planning to dm a lot to see how things are going. There were a few people who had Snapchat, but not Instagram, so I dropped my Snapchat in the breakout room I was in with them so we could keep in touch.
This convention was a part of my BBYO experience. BBYO is an organization for Jewish teenagers, you can be in a chapter full of girls (No matter if you use she/her pronouns or she/they pronouns), a chapter full of guys (if you use he/him or he/they pronouns), or a co-ed chapter with any pronouns you use. This organization is full of tons of people in grades 8-12, many different regions based on where you live, and many different councils based on where you live.
My chapter is in Baltimore Council Northern Region East. Northern Region East includes Baltimore Council, DC Council, and Northern Virginia Council. There are many chapter events and conventions you can go to during your experience here. These events aren’t just fun, but they’re empowering, and encourage connection to Judaism based on what feels right to you. It doesn’t matter how religious you are. The earlier you join, the better. This gives you a lot of time to have some of the best experiences of your life. You’ll find that you have a place to call a home outside of your house, and a family made of lifetime friends.
I know this sounds like a written advertisement for this organization, and it kind of is, but I’m just speaking from my personal experience. My chapter is small, but close. We’re growing both in numbers and strong bonds. If you use she/they pronouns, you’re welcome in this chapter, and if you use these pronouns, and you’re a theatre kid, this is definitely the chapter for you (sadly this person is also a senior, but my friend has a Broadway playlist on Spotify that’s over 24 hours long ). We have movie nights, game nights, talent shows (and sometimes what we like to call “bad talent shows” where we show off a bad version of our talents just for fun and a few laughs). There’s always tons of food, and tons of fun.
Ranging from my chapter events to my last convention ever, which was this one, it’s been the best experience of my life, which ends at the beginning of June. So I’d definitely recommend you join if you’re a Jewish teen to travel the world, whether you meet via Zoom, like I did, or, around the country in person, post pandemic of course. There’s also good news, the International Convention next year, if in person, is being held in Baltimore!
MOOSE PRINTS 