There I was. Sitting in the bright light on stage, I was so nervous. I had been preparing for weeks, but suddenly I couldn’t remember any of my Torah reading. It felt like the most important day of my life; I couldn’t mess it up. I don’t speak Hebrew, but I can read it so I knew if I had to improvise I could. Luckily it didn't come to that. We were singing, playing, dancing, and praying until suddenly it was time.

I have a twin brother so we had a B'nai Mitzvah (a Bar/Bat mitzvah). I was grateful to not be alone, but part of it felt like a competition. My brain quickly turned Johnny and Charlie into Johnny vs. Charlie. Of course I wanted him to be amazing. I wanted him to remember it as a perfect day. I hope he does. He went up first and started singing his portion. He was amazing. By the time he was finished I was only thinking about not messing up everything I worked so hard for. His reading was over, and it was my turn.

I started one word at a time. Slow and steady. I looked around. My mom crying, my dad looking so proud of his work with us, my siblings watching focused, the congregants beaming. All the nervousness melted away. I didn't mess up once. It was perfect, until I noticed something. My friends looked bored, some of them were on their phones, and some of them left the room. I tried to put myself in their shoes. None of them are Jewish, and they’d never been to a service like this before, but it still hurt.

I sat down. It was almost time to do our speeches. Our speeches were very different. He expressed his feelings through humor, and it really was funny. My speech was more heartfelt. I finished with tears in my eyes. I was so grateful to everyone who got me there. To my Bat Mitzvah. The day I had waited my whole life for. Everyone came up and hugged us. It was so special.

The day went extremely fast. I waited 13 years for a moment that felt like 5 minutes. Then it was just a memory. I guess that’s a good thing. I was proud of both of us. At that moment I was happy  to represent Judaism in my small town, and I didn’t care if my friends didn’t appreciate it that day because I knew that they would remember their first Bat Mitzvah for the rest of their lives.

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