Hillel Nostalgia

As usual, it's taking me too long to write the blog post that I want to write.  So here is my thought of the day, which came at the most inopportune moment.  Orly and Arielle, this one is for you.
I visited Rabbi Brian in his office at Anabel Taylor Hall on Thursday afternoon, discussing High Holiday planning, and this year's prospects for a viable KOACH community.  (On a side note, I'm not very hopeful.)  All of a sudden, while I was supposed to be discussing the next day's bonfire, and this Friday night's Shabbat dinner, a wave of nostalgia hit me, hard, and I drifted back three years.

It is 2009, this very same weekend.  I remember visiting clubfest in Barton Hall with my Mother, and meeting Rabbi Jason.  I somehow make it to Appel Commons, upstairs, that evening.  I meet Orly and Victor, and sit next to Rob Levine; somehow incredibly, someone suggests that I revive a defunct book club.
Then it is Sunday, and I go to Collegetown to see Andrew and Erica, and Andrew tells me to spend time with Arielle, who will keep me safe from Orly.
Monday, at the barbecue: I arrive too late to receive any food.  So does the poor homeless guy in the line in front of me.
Tuesday: I am in the former Bookery, with Rebecca as backup, trying to negotiate an order of books.
Classes begin.  Arielle sits next to me in my Islamic Civilization class.
It is Friday night again; I'm meeting Aaron Sarna, and trying to stay out of people's way.  I don't feel very welcome.
Another Friday night, and Becky is asking me, in the corner of 104 West!, by the hand-washing station, whether I can read the first Torah portion on Rosh Hashanah.
I'm struggling to read, despite my practice.
I'm in front of a scroll again, but back in my parents' synagogue, reading the fourth portion for Yom Kippur.  I hurry back to campus, having missed class (my Freshman writing seminar) for the first time, albeit with an excuse.  I make it to Initiation to Greek Culture, though.  That evening, my friend Nick helps me break my fast.
More time spins by, and I go home to to celebrate the first night of Sukkot with my parents.  After the holiday is over, I don't help Orly and Jacob dismantle the Sukkah: I miss out on fun and pizza.
I meet Sam Moss one night at Shabbat dinner.  Nice guy, who works for the governor.
Nathan Cohen asks me to write a devar Torah.  I get very excited.  It's supremely stupid, and I make a fool of myself, in front of everyone.  An older man approaches me in order to harass me afterwards, and Annie sticks up for me.  I feel pretty terrible for the rest of the night.

The next week, it turns out that at least two people, two other freshmen, had been paying attention to what I had been saying.  One is Harry, and I can't really remember the other one's name, but she seems upset that I feel so ignorant around everyone else.  After nightfall on Saturday, she calls me, having gotten my phone number from Victor.  She says that her name is Peninah, and want to know if I would like to start studying with her.
I write a pseudo-Platonic dialogue for my Initiation to Greek Culture class, and Orly gets really excited.  She wants to read the whole thing.
Chanukah is approaching, and I attend some dreidel-making event, dragging Rebecca along with me.  I regret it afterwards.
There's some kind of doughnut-eating contest at the dining hall on the first Friday night of Chanukah.   Noah and Lazar both bet large piles of Chanukah gelt on me, with 7:1 odds against.  Nathan Cohen is the announcer, and very obviously loves his job.  Somehow, I end up out-eating the others.  Nobody can quite believe it, but Victor is very happly  I walk back to my dormitory, laughing all the way.
It's the end of the semester, and I'm at the kosher dining hall on a weeknight.  Another Freshman, who lives in Highrise 5, is leaving around midnight, and has a few hours to spend with me.  I can remember him having made comments about the Yemenite custom of eating chicken with one's bare hands before, but I don't want him to feel lonely, so I offer to spend the rest of the evening with him.  He teaches me the combination for front door of the CJL, and he ends up spending the rest of the night teaching me 1900 years of history, or so.
It's wintertime, and I return home.  I spend almost every day writing long e-mails to Peninah.

Then I realized that I was supposed to be paying attention to planning High Holidays, and that I wasn't being very respectful to Rabbi Brian.  For the rest of the day, I thought more about the first semester of my Freshman year, than I did about the first semester of my Senior year.

~JD