My name is Leah Schmidt and this blog is MY STORY… the true story… of what happens when people escape their “real” lives… and come to Israel…The Ideal World– TEL AVIV!
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Thanks to Oranim and a man named Shlomo (Momo) Lifshitz (President of Oranim), today I am living and working in Tel Aviv, the most incredible city, learning Hebrew, designing jewelry and living life to the fullest. I can’t tell you how incredible it feels to be 24 and having the opportunity to do what I’m doing. Stay tuned…
My Life Pre-Birthright (…and way too much info about myself)
I was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. I attended Emory University in Atlanta, GA where I receivied my Bachelor’s in Sociology in May 2007. After graduation, I decided to stay in Atlanta and continue working as a sales associate at a boutique that I had worked at during the last semester of school. At the end the first summer post college, my friends from Emory and I decided to reunite in San Diego for a mini vacation. Two days into the trip, I broke my ankle. A day later I was shipped back home to my family in St. Louis on crutches to be taken care of for the next two months. At first, I was miserable. What was I going to do for the next two months? To my amazement, I quickly realized that breaking my ankle and being bound in a cast was actually a blessing in disguise. Yes, a blessing.
For years I had dreamed of being able to invest all my time and resources into making my own jewelry. I’ve always loved making jewelry. I would spend hours and hours each day cranking out as many necklaces, bracelets and earrings as possible, bringing them to summer camp, then high school and then even college, to sell to my peers. Year after year my interest for turning it into a business one day grew stronger. With my ankle broken, I had all the time in the world and my dream became a reality. I spent the next two months from morning to night making one thing after another. At the end of the two months I held a trunk show at my house and it was easily one of the best days of my life. I loved sharing what I did with everyone I knew and seeing the results of my hard work.
After my show, with a heeled ankle, it was time to return to Atlanta. It didn’t take long, before I decided that I wanted to move back home to be close to my family and friends. Back in St. Louis, I immediately entered the oh-so dreaded job search and after three months at home and a lot of networking later, I found what I believed to be the “perfect” job for me as an Assistant Account Executive for Twist, LLC, a small marketing and public relations agency focused on lifestyle, luxury and cultural clientele. After interning at Creative Media Marketing, LLC, a boutique PR agency in NYC the summer before my senior year at Emory, I knew I wanted to be part of this incredibly fashionable and creative world. While I knew my interest and experience in the industry would be more fully realized in a bigger city such as New York or L.A., considering my passion for fashion (no-rhyme intended), I wanted to be in St. Louis and Twist was the agency.
With only 10 people on staff at Twist, I was thrown head first into the fast-paced world of agency life. I spent a year at Twist, working so hard in what was, at most times, an incredibly stressful and challenging environment. From my first day to the last, I was writing press releases, pitching stories to the media, managing and executing special events, developing website content, writing copy for advertisements, and attempting to become the “in-house” expert on all social media and networking. For the most part, I really enjoyed and valued being a member of the Twist staff, my coworkers were great and I really loved being “in-the-know” of all things St. Louis.
Once I returned home from birthright though this past December, I couldn’t shake the desire to go back to Israel. With a year under my belt at Twist and the opportunity to return for a five month program in Tel Aviv, I couldn’t resist.
Looking back, it’s funny to think that my mom had to work so hard to convince me to take advantage of the birthright opportunity in the first place. The day I returned home from my trip was the day I knew I was going to go back. I craved the liberation I would feel the minute I arrived in Tel Aviv and the experiences and relationships that I would gain from the program. Although my nerves escalated as my departure date got closer and closer, I was extremely excited and proud of myself for stepping outside of my comfort zone and embarking on this new adventure and phase of my life. While I dream of falling in love one day (maybe even in Israel (if I’m to be that lucky), having a family and developing a successful career (whether that be in fashion, PR, marketing, a combination of all three or something entirely different), I am really excited to see what the future holds. If my experience on birthright taught me anything it’s to enjoy life, live it fully and be open to the unexpected.
