One of the things I think about most when I go to BBYO International events, or multi-regional events,  is how different every region can feel.

There are regions with hundreds of teens who all seem to know each other. They can walk into a room at IC and immediately find ten people from home. They have huge delegations, representatives on board, matching shirts, inside jokes, and people who have been in BBYO together for years.

And then there are the smaller regions. 

The regions that are actually full countries, yet have less teens than regular regions in the US. The international regions. The regions where maybe only a few people make the trip. The regions where getting to an international event can mean hours of driving, multiple flights, expensive plane tickets, and a lot more planning than most people realize. The regions where you might walk into a room and realize you are one of only a handful of people representing your entire home community, your entire country at times.

I think it is easy to overlook how hard that can be.

Going to an international event is already a lot. You are meeting hundreds or thousands of people, trying to make friends, going to programs, figuring out where you are supposed to be, and somehow trying to make the most of every second. But when you come from a small or far-away region, there is another layer to it. You are not just representing yourself. You feel like you are representing everyone back home.

Sometimes, you are the only person from your region in a conversation. Sometimes you have to explain where your region even is. Sometimes you meet someone who has never heard that there are Jews in your country, and you realize that your BBYO experience looks completely different from theirs.

But honestly, I think that is one of the best parts of BBYO.

Because the people from the smallest and furthest regions are some of the people who make BBYO feel like BBYO.

I’m hailing from BBYO Barcelona, Spain. Our region used to be so small, non-existent only a decade back. Now, we’ve had a representative in Iboard, and I can proudly say the 81st International Nsiah is from my chapter. The international delegates are becoming more and more inspired. We may not have a hundred people in our chapters, and we may only have small groups going to the international events, but I still hear people telling me the Spanish region is one of the loudest, proudest regions they’ve met. 

So maybe the international delegates don’t come from the biggest chapters, but I believe the smallest regions, the ones who are so far from everyone else, are what holds BBYO together. Because the delegates from those regions? They are the ones who travel across countries and continents just to spend a few days with people they may have never met before. They show up even when it would be easier not to. They walk into spaces where they do not know anyone and still find a way to make them feel like home.

And once you start talking to people from these regions, you realize that being in a smaller, further region does not mean having a smaller BBYO experience.

If anything, it can make the experience feel even more personal.

When your region is small, you know the people around you differently. You know how important every new member is. You notice when someone shows up to a program. You feel the impact of one person deciding to take on a leadership role. And when you finally get to bring that community to an international event, even if it is only a few people, you are bringing something that is incredibly meaningful with you. Maybe that’s why these delegates can be the loudest at times. Because they’re representing a whole country. Because they don’t get to do this multiple times a year, or even more than one time in their lives. 

And looking at these regions, talking to a person from a chapter with maybe 10 teens, reminds me that this is how BBYO started. BBYO Spain started with just a few people a couple years ago, and now we have over 40 delegates at IC. But BBYO itself started with just a few Jewish guys in the US, and it expanded into a global, international movement that means the world to some of us.

Sometimes we talk about the size of our regions like it determines how much of an impact we can have. It does not.

A region does not need hundreds of members to matter. It does not need to be close to where an event is happening. It does not need to have a massive delegation to be an important part of BBYO. Because at the end of the day, BBYO is held together by all of us, including the people who have to travel the furthest and arrive with the smallest group.

Maybe that is the irony of it all.

The regions that are furthest apart from the rest of BBYO can sometimes be the ones that bring everyone closer together.

And I think we should notice that more.