opening session

So much energy. So many kids. So many colors. So much movement, so much dancing, so much enthusiasm. And so very much noise.

The USYers, more than 800 of them, danced and pranced and flew and flooded into the huge room, by group, with its banner and its colors and its own stuff. Some had lightsticks, and one group had a white balloon thing that represented something or other; it was funny even though I didn't get it. (That was true of much of the event. Clearly it was funny to them; equally clearly I had no idea what they were talking about.) The energy and enthusiasm and high-octane normalness of it was overwhelming. And it was so very very loud.

Each region's president introduced her or himself (strikingly, there were more female than male regional presidents, although strikingly again that gender breakdown reverses on the international level) as that region's members stood on chairs and howled. But when Jules Gutin, USY's director, spoke seriously about the convention's theme, Judaism and the environment, everyone was quiet. It was the sound of intent listening.

It was satisfying middle-tech, and everything worked exactly as it was meant to (or at least it looked that way, which really is all that matters).

If USYers are our future we will do very well.