Mia Shonbrun Siege
During this process I have learned so much about myself. As cliche as that sounds, writing these essays has made me take a step back and think.
I discovered my role model, Tina Fey, and learned so many things about her. I learned so many values my family has that before this process I knew nothing about. The paper that stood out the most to me was the challah paper. Not only was there an endless number of interesting facts to learn about challah, but what was considered “bat mitzvah work” was literally baking with my mom. I hate to say it, but I might be a little sick of eating challah!
My parents wanted me to become a bat mitzvah because I’ve been part of a Jewish community since I’ve been born. I have been going to Jewish education, or as we call it “KidSchool”, since I was about two years old and my parents thought having a bat mitzvah would connect me to Jewish people around the world. This process has been more challenging than it should have been for my brother and me, and insanely long, but I feel so proud and honestly relieved to have finished it.
I am so grateful I had my parents’ help throughout this process. Although it caused many fights and stress, they helped me with so much of this. They also put together the service and party and are the reason we are all here today. I love you guys! A huge thanks to my mentor, Molly, who stuck with me through this whole process no matter how long it was. Although it did take forever, she is the reason I even finished at all. Thank you to Rabbi Peter and Isabel Kaplan who helped me with every paper, by editing and offering amazing advice. Really this could not have been completed without you two.
Thank you to Mika who started out teaching Carly and me how to play piano but has now become an important part of this congregation and friend to my family for many years and is here tonight playing the piano for Jakob and me. Thank you to my sister Carly for not only being a great older sister, but also leading us in the music today. I love you! Thank you to Jakob for sharing a womb and this service for without him I never could have written enough alone to fill a whole service! And finally, thank you to everyone who came today. I am so happy you are here.
