Sunday morning next to the station,
She waited with him until the train came,
When she lay down to sleep, before dozing off,
She'd write him lines in blue ink.
The birds are leaving, the evening is already cold,
It's a beautiful Shabbat eve, and she waited by the gate.
It's autumn in the streets, and now she is twenty,
But why hasn't the boy ever turned twenty?

Up until not so long ago, whenever I'd hear this song I would feel a sadness in my heart for just a few moments, because I'd think about a time when there were wars; but that was a thing so far away from me that I would immediately carry on.  Now that I am an IDF girl soldier, these words have such relevance for me.  Only one and a half months ago I would "wait with him until the train came" and the sadness was a sweet sadness, of love and yearning; and the knowledge that we would meet in another two or three weeks filled me with expectation and made me happy.  Suddenly I find myself living within a totally different reality-a reality that only here, in this country, a youth of 18 is forced to confront.

I have been serving on the northern border for one year and nine months now, and in the course of my army duties I've gotten to work with combat soldiers on the ground (paratroopers; Golani, Givati and Nahal brigades; armored forces, etc.) and beyond that, living with them daily for 24 hours a day.  These people have become real family for me.  The fear I feel in this war is immense.  I'm afraid for those same good friends of mine who are now fighting in Lebanon; I'm fearful of the grim knowledge that any one of them liable to be lost in battle, and that this would be so near to me.  I worry about my family living in the north, experiencing this war day in day out.  I fear for my life and the lives of my comrades, since we are only a few meters from the border and constitute an integral part of our country's defense. 

Despite all the difficulties and fears, my pride is as strong as ever-as a soldier serving in this war and doing her part, and as a Jew who knows there is no other country for her.

Sivan Alster
A girl soldier serving on the northern border and living in Hoshaya.