Do you 10Q?

It seems both trite and appropriate to blog today as we prepare to enter Yom Kippur in just a few short hours. Between trying to get a solid meal in, cleaning the house and connecting with friends and family to make tshuvah, it was important to me to have a little time to do self-reflection before the holiday. Thankfully, this amazing website doyou10q.com exists for this purpose. They send you one question each day of the yamim noraim (the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur) that range from "Describe a meaningful milestone of the year" to "What is a personal fear you would like to work on overcoming in the upcoming year?" I've participated in this program for the past two years and each September, when your previous year's answers come to you about a week before Rosh Hashanah, I love reading my responses and seeing where I have grown and what I still need to grow and work on for the new year.

Unfortunately, with this week being our first full week of class (9 classes!) and everything, I watched the questions come to my inbox day after day without taking the time to answer them. Therefore, I spent about an hour today thinking and reflecting on the questions. Given how many of my answers last year asked the question of where I would be while reading them, I took the opportunity to think about the many changes, challenges and highlights of the past year. I know this year will be transformative - which sometimes makes answering these questions really challenging. I found myself having more questions than answers and, while I have a pretty solid guess as to where I will be located come High Holidays 5775, I don't know where I'll be working, what I'll talk about in a potential sermon (gulp) or how I'll be connecting to all of the material - both the academic and practical aspects of my hopeful future profession.

On this Yom Kippur, I know I have much to reflect on and improve within myself and I'm committed to using this year to do that. It's hard not to get caught up in the proverbial HUC bubble (not necessarily a bad thing!) but I so appreciate the relationships I've built and the ones that will come. I'm used to not being at my home synagogue for the chaggim, but getting to be there last year was so great. Hilarious when Molly (shout out!) said "your family feels like celebrities!", but TI really is a place that feels like home and I'm always a little homesick for those people and comfortable services and melodies when I'm not there. Thank goodness for streaming services so I can watch them from here (you know you're in rabbinic school when... that's your Sunday afternoon.) To quote my classmate, "We're in a profession where we need to make a home wherever we go, which is a beautiful and scary thing." Could not agree more!

To close out, here are a few photos from recent excursions, meals etc. My blog was feeling way too wordy!

 Eliana, Staci and I at Rosh Hashanah dinner! Basically my second apartment so we decided I was the third host. Also we coordinated super well so we committed to re-wearing the outfits we wore that morning to services to the dinner so we could get a photo.

Most of the HUC representation at Women of the Wall's Selichot service. Finally in the women's section! Super excited to get that t-shirt and a very meaningful service with a lot of group participation. Women freely blew shofarot at the wall... very special. And I danced with Anat Hoffman afterwards!

A pretty typical shot from basketball... lots of people under the rim, maybe the ball went in. We've made it a weekly tradition and it is so fun! None of us are that good but we're getting a lot better and it is such a fun stress reliever. Lots of thanks to Ben (on the left) for organizing!