After spending close to 13 years at CESJDS, there are a number of aspects of my educational experience that I will miss after I walk across the stage at graduation. Here they are in list form:

1. Waking up at 6:45 a.m. every day. Waking up this early gives me more hours in the day. That’s more time to spend productively trying not to fall asleep due to exhaustion. On a related note, I will also miss staying up late at night and into the early morning to work on homework. Fortunately, I’ve been told that this will be a significant part of college life as well.

2. Being exposed to different subject areas. While I am looking forward to having more freedom to choose classes in college, I am still appreciative of JDS for introducing me to a wide range of subjects. Chemistry will be especially helpful if I ever hit my head really hard and decide to be a chemist.

3. The furniture. The oddly- shaped tables in this building provide fun brain teasers for students and teachers alike to solve every time they need to rearrange a classroom. Additionally, the chairs here are not comfortable, but after years of sitting in them, there is no other shape into which my spine will fit.

4. The clocks. Although the JDS clocks do not look special, their image is seared into my mind. I have spent so many hours of my life staring at them. These clocks eliminate the need to visit an art museum; on long Fridays, they sometimes ooze into Daliesque forms hanging on the walls.

5. The bells. Bells at JDS are a treat because they rarely occur when they are supposed to; It’s always a pleasant surprise to hear them. Like the tables, the bells also serve as team-building exercises for classes and their teachers to figure out which ones actually matter.

6. Google Forms. From surveys for classes to surveys about Shabbatons to surveys about grade spirit, it feels like I am sent hundreds of Google Forms each week. What would I do without them? I might have an empty inbox for once.

7. The community. The JDS community is incredibly tight-knit. I am especially reminded of this every flu season when everyone is so generous in sharing their germs. 

In all seriousness, I am very grateful for my JDS experience and know that it has prepared me well for the next chapter of my life. At the very least, it has given me a lot of comedic material about which my friends and I can reminisce once we finally recover from high school.

This story was featured in the Volume 36, Issue 4 edition of The Lion’s Tale, published on January 25, 2019.