 I can't get back to Israel. My name is India and this is how I got stuck out of the country where my life is based, Israel. Right now I am in my birth country, the United States of America. Lately, I've been enjoying all the stores and restaurants that they don't have in Israel, plus spending time with my family. But the thing is, I can't leave to go back to my life in Israel. Because the United States has such a high COVID infection rate, Israel has been almost all non-citizens from entering the country. I am an American Jew, but I still do not have Israeli citizenship. So in order to get into Israel, I must receive special permission from a group called the Exceptions Committee. However, I haven't been able to get this permission yet. This Exceptions Committee has a staff of about 20 people who are going through about 24,000 applications of other people who are also trying to return. In fact, there is even a movement of American Jews trying to get back into Israel. The movement is called hashtag let's my people in. They are outraged with Israel's policy of banning non-Israelis. So there is no saying when I will actually get back. It could be weeks or months, but actually I am used to getting stuck in places. In fact, getting stuck in Israel is how my life completely changed. Maybe you have seen my videos before, where I go across Israel and share stories about the people and culture there. You may have even wondered yourself, who is this girl named India who makes videos about Israel? Well, my story actually begins with me getting stranded. Back in 2020, when the pandemic first hit, I was visiting Israel temporarily. I was doing an internship at I24 News when I found out that my flight back to the US was canceled due to COVID. I had hardly any money to stay in Israel longer, so I started to ask I24 for a job. But it was unlikely that they would hire me, since finding work during the pandemic got pretty hard. In my free time, I was making videos about what it was like being stuck abroad in Israel. It was something I was just doing for fun with my friends. But little did I know that it would be my big break. One day, the biggest news site in Israel wrote an article on my YouTube channel, where I was posting my videos about Israel. This article made I24 notice me. On my last day of my internship, when I thought all hope was lost of getting a job, I24 surprised me with an offer. They asked me to be a journalist and vlogger for them. It was a brand new position they created for me at the channel. I was in shock. I never expected this door to open. Since then, I've been working at I24 News, fulfilling my dream to make videos about people, travel and culture. So getting stuck in life may not mean you're really stuck. Many of us in the past two years have found ourselves in unexpected and unpleasant circumstances. But I hope that my story can prove to you that even when you are somewhere unexpected, you can expect that it will work out. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.