Day 1 - My intent

It’s officially Thursday morning, January 3rd, as the time is 2:37 AM - well past midnight. For all intents and purposes, however, it’s still Wednesday night, January 2nd. As I’m sure the more perceptive of you have realized, it was recently the secular New Year, the beginning of 2008 (wow – has time flown or what? I’m already 20!!!). Hmm…there are so many things I would like to talk about, like why I feel it’s worth celebrating the secular New Year and why I’m writing a blog at all.

Let’s start with the latter first, shall we? I’m writing a blog for a few reasons: to 1) preserve my thoughts, 2) further discover myself, 3)start thought-provoking discussions, and 4) perhaps provide insight–to anyone willing to read–into the life of a (Yeshiva University) student. I kept a journal throughout my trips to Poland & England and throughout the end of my shana bet (which came to an end over a year ago…I want to write about that as well). Looking back, I find it beneficial to have done so. I feel that one must always remember one’s origins, and I don’t only mean the physical ones. Yes, I’m from Chicago and was raised in a Modern-Orthodox, Religious Zionist home. But one must remember more than that – one must remember his mental beginnings as well. Meaning, the ideological (perhaps various) stances that a person may have are nothing short of the results of all his or her experiences (in my case, his). Thus, this blog will help me remember where I started, where I went, where I currently am, and where I might be going.

Truthfully, this blog is more for me than it is for the reader. So why, you might ask, am I making it a public blog? Why do I not write my daily musings on a word processor and keep it to myself? The answer is threefold: 1) I will undoubtedly gain from people’s comments (if any); 2) my thoughts might provoke the reader–in turn–to look deep inside him or herself and discover who he or she really is; or, perhaps, 3) my thoughts might start a thought-provoking discussion. Does that mean that this blog will not be useful to a person who has already discovered himself? I hope not, but I truthfully have no idea. But I’ll let those lucky people solve that problem. Anyway, enough for one night. It’s finals week, and as such, it would behoove me to get some rest so that I can have a productive study day tomorrow.

My goal: to write every day, commenters or not.

(I should also note that I got the idea to write a blog in part from Moshe at http://wildtumor.blogspot.com/. Just giving credit where credit is due...)