Nat Smookler (r.) is an incoming senior at Two Rivers High School in Minnesota.

For Nat, this summer was one of “connection,” to both new people and her own Judaism.

Nat says she loved the feeling of being able to walk the streets in Israel and “connect with the people around me” simply because everyone was Jewish.

Nat adds that she didn’t take the trip for granted, especially after she and her friends almost didn’t make it to Israel. She recalls her first visit to the Kotel.

“The site that was the most meaningful for me was the Kotel because I had never been before, and it’s just so beautiful that I got there,” Nat says. “I felt a passion in my heart.”

What’s Nat’s biggest takeaway?

“I learned to be proud of my religion and to show off my Jewish star and my whole [Jewish] self,” she says.