Just Believe

Out of my five closest friends at Penn, all but one of them are Jewish. Never before has the religion of my friends been discussed; however, away from home and our families we find that our religion brings us closer together. We share stories about the seventh grade Bar and Bat Mitzvah circuit and summers spent at overnight camps and, of course, we play Jewish Geography (which, in case you don't know is basically thinking of every person that the other may know from school, camp or any summer program). But when we're with Amanda we always second-guess ourselves...Should we not talk about such Jewish events and activities in front of her? Will she feel out of place? After spending almost three months together we've come to realize that it's the complete opposite. In fact, it's more than okay to discuss Judaism with Amanda. She listens to stories, asks questions and tells us about her experience going to Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. And not only has she learned from us, but we've learned from her. Often we find ourself bombarding Amanda with questions about her religion--Greek Orthodox. I have found out more information about her religion than I ever could have read in a text book and I am excited to learn more. Not only do we teach each other, but we tend to end up comparing the two religions. We have found many similarities that I never knew existed between the two religions and I'm sure there are more. However, more importantly I have learned from Amanda that it really does not matter what religion a person identifies with or how religious a person chooses to be. What is important is whether or not that person has faith. Whether this faith be in a god, another person or themselves does not matter--what is essential is simply that a person believes in something.