Posted By James Besser
This Jewish Life: Eli's Back
I guess I kinda left you all with quite the cliffhanger.
In my previous blog I vented about the frustrating, agonizing, and anxiety provoking event of finding out whther or not I got into Cornell.
I got in.
So my hiatus from blogging was probably—no, most definitely brought about by an early onset of senioritis. I apologize.
So what’s been going on in the mind of your average teenage, Jewish kid?
Well there’s the obvious: Obama-rama, gleeful witnessing of Mets’ off-season wheeling and dealing, and the formulation of my plans for next year.
And the less obvious: Opinions on a family trip to Vegas, rediscovering my love for Simon and Garfunkel, and an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, now being able to grow a real pair of sideburns.
My life has been simplified and complicated at the same time. For the first time I have a sense of what my future s going to look like. And not just an idea, but a real picture. I know I’m going to be in Israel next year. I know that I am going to Cornell after that. That knowledge, realism not optimism, is both soothing and startling. There is an undeniable feeling of relaxation that accompanies this kind of “knowing,” but I also feel like Peter Pan. I don’t want to grow up. I won’t grow up. But I cannot deny the inevitable, after all, I have sideburns.
It’s odd. I’ve always wanted to be able to grow sideburns, but who knew that these hairy face-frames would have, implicit within their presence on my profile, a message about my life, heralding the eventual demise of my youth. Now I know college is still technically part of this epoch of youth, but it’s all so evanescent. I feel like I just started high school.
But I have to leave high school, my house, and Teaneck some time, right? I just hope I’m ready.