Personal Narrative: My Life As A Jewish

I, as my application states, have the label of "Jewish" next to my name. To me "Jewish" had always been little more than just that, a label. I attended Sunday School for several years, spending the majority of my time there wishing I could be doing just about anything but sitting in that small, rundown building. My mom had always attended Sunday School as a child. Naturally, she believed I should be raised similarly. Due to this, I spent just about every Sunday morning of my childhood daydreaming in a room full of people praying in what appeared to be gibberish. I dreaded those Sunday mornings. Countless times I would attempt to fake an illness, desperately wanting to stay home and sleep. Due to my disdain for those mornings, I never had a bar mitzvah. Seen as a holy experience, a bar mitzvah is arguably the most notable facet of a Jewish

I socialized comfortably with them, even with Rabbi. Once our plane had landed, more of the same continued. The week's events provided plenty of socialization time alongside plenty of educational time. While admittedly much of the discussion was not exactly riveting, I found myself actually interested in some of the issues and perspectives regarding my religion. This was the first time I could recall ever experiencing such a phenomenon. I was befriending my peers and taking interest in the details of my religion. I never really connected with Judaism and religion in general because I saw a lack of logic behind much of its ideologies. I mean, how are we supposed to consider ourselves "chosen ones" if just about everyone historically has tried to kill us? During that week I had once dreaded, I finally put my natural skepticism aside and saw another factor of what religion actually represented - unity. Somehow, such a simple concept never crossed my mind. Not only did I finally realize this concept, I experienced