I’ve always struggled with the constant wonder of how people view me. With just one glance, you would see an average teenage American girl. But that’s just one part of me. The other is a born and observant Modern Orthodox Jew. My father grew up religious, but my mother did not. Once they got married, they decided to become Modern Orthodox and raise my siblings and I religiously. Growing up, I was obviously habituated to Judaism and always thoroughly enjoyed it. Shabbat and holidays have always brought me so much happiness. I was actually born on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which automatically makes it my favorite of the holiday’s.
Working in the dual curriculum of my elementary and high school years got difficult at times. My 8:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. days consisted of four Judaic classes and four secular classes, sometimes more. The workload from nine to ten different classes consistently got extremely overwhelming, but that never really mattered to me. What mattered was that I got to go to this school everyday, surrounded by people who are just like me that I’ve known my whole life, in an environment I’m so comfortable in, to learn all about the religion I was born into and more.
I have never really left the Modern Orthodox bubble that I was so nuzzled into for the first eighteen years of my life. But now that I’ve emerged from that particular world and moved to New York City for college, how will I balance the Judaism I know and love with living in a new and fairly more secular environment without the automacy and nature of my religion surrounding me all the time?