No time to begin but now...

Well, I suppose right now may be the time to start this blog. It's the end of a significant segment of my life, but it's also just one period of many.

These past four years were certainly formulative for me. I developed new relationships, solidified old ones, and matured academically and personally. I pushed myself, went over the top, and learned some limits. I don't know everything there is to know, I'm not perfect, and I'm okay with that. And I am so excited to continue learning more, intimidating as it is and challenging as I'm sure it will be, especially in India, which is my next step.

To put things in chronological perspective: I graduated from college the week before last, from Barnard College of Columbia University (with a Bachelor's degree in Religion, concentrating in women) and from List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (with a Bachelor's degree in Bible). I left behind the Columbia Daily Spectator, where I copy edited for three years, as well as the Jewish women's a capella group that I founded and sang in - S'madar; ask to hear us, and I'm happy to share! I have already finished at NBC News, where I was an executive intern this semester in NY, and where I interned in London last summer. I am done working at the Woodbury Jewish Center in Syosset, Long Island, where I led the Junior Congregation for four years of college. I am still wrapping up my private teaching jobs, Jewish studies and Bar Mitzvah lessons, though those, too, will finish up soon.

I'm still in New York City, to finish with my Bar Mitzvah student, and then I am off to Turkey for a week with my mom, my graduation gift from her. After that, it's two weeks in my hometown of Albany, NY to unpack and repack, and then I leave for a year in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, for the Jewish Service Corps fellowship.

At this point, everything seems so surreal. I can't believe that the past four years are "past," since they went by in such a blur, and I don't feel more than 16 or 17, when this August will bring my 22nd birthday. Scariest still is that I've been told that life only speeds up from here. I haven't even left for India yet, and already people have been hounding me to tell them what I want to do next, after I come back from India. Will I be a rabbi? A cantor? A Jewish educator? A journalist? A student again? Will I move back to NY, travel around, return to Albany? It reminds me of a book my mom bought for me before I graduated, by one 0f my favorite authors, Ann Patchett, called What Now? The book is the commencement that Patchett gave at her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence, and while looking down upon the need to think about the "what next," Patchett emphasizes the importance of the unknown and the possibilities it has to offer. It is with this in mind that I prepare to enter into a year of adventure, challenge, and opportunity.

I am overcome by so many emotions: excitement, anxiety, numbness, thrill, happiness, contentment, outright nervousness, and countless more than I cannot name for lack of the ability to attach words to my mixed-up feelings. I am so thankful to everyone who has helped me reach this point: my teachers, advisers, personal mentors, employers, friends, family - you all know who you are, and I wouldn't be me without you, trite and cliche as that might sound.

I think that's all I'll say for now, but more updates are to come, obviously, since I plan to use this blog as an outlet for my experiences, as well as a general descriptor of them. I want all those who have meant so much to me to be able to keep up with my new life in India, and I want anyone interested in my fellowship at large to be able to learn more about it.

Here's to my ventures into the unknown...