Jared' s Personality

            For many Jewish teenagers, the “Israel trip” is a staple of growing up. Sometime in their teenage or college years, said Jew will partake in birthright or a similar trip to Israel, to visit the mother country. I was fortunate enough to go on my Israel trip in the summer of 2016 through Habonim Dror North America, my youth movement. During my 5-week trek across Israel, we visited deserts, mountains, seas, and cities. Also during my 5 weeks of Aliyah, my life changed for the better.             It’s cliché and I hate saying it, but to put it any way would be an understatement. When I left for Israel, in late June of 2016, I was scared out of my mind. I was entering a new environment with new people. I knew only 10 out of the 100 people that were on the trip, and liked maybe 2 of the 10 that I already knew. As well as this, most of the people had taken their time to get to know each other before the trip, but I was entering as a stranger. The first few days were weird –

I’ve played piano for 10+ years. I’ve gone through multiple teachers, and multiple styles. I’ve played both Classical and Jazz, and am enamored with both of them. When it comes to classical piano, we talk about my forte (pun intended). When playing classical music, I prefer to draw from the Romantic and Modern eras, where the music has more dynamics and fun turns about it, as opposed to the more restrictive classical and baroque eras, which bore me. Grieg is my favorite artist on the classical side of the border. I love how his music tells stories, mostly folk tales and stories about people from Norway. Grieg’s music, through its melodies and rustic soul, shows the passion and uniqueness of life in Norway, ranging from peasants dances to wedding marches. Currently, I’m working on his famous Concerto, and it is both my favorite and the hardest piece that I have ever played. I have been working on it for months, and most likely have months to go before it is perfected, but that effort a