Writing about your life is dangerous. The only thing easier than putting your audience to sleep (“I remember the rich aroma of my grandmother’s delicious matza ball soup”) is shocking your audience so thoroughly that you’ll never get hired or go on a date again (“I remember the rich aroma of my grandmother’s delicious matza ball soup the night we first made love.”) A good personal essay has to tell a good story, and most of the time, the best stories are the most personally incriminating.
Which is why we’re always so excited when Jewcy users respond to a personal essay—or a feature, for that matter—with long, nakedly honest stories of their own. They’re not usually signed, so the risk isn’t quite as great, but it’s still sort of amazing to watch the one-way writer-reader relationship explode into a campfire storytelling session. Below, seven of our favorite commenter overshares:
1.) The woman who responded to Amy Odell’s piece about revitalizing the pro-choice movement with her own eminently relatable story about getting knocked up at her five-year college reunion.
2.) The second woman who responded with a very different abortion narrative—one that starts “I was fourteen and the math told me it was my uncle's baby.”
3.) The “Vice President of a wildly successful company” and father of two who defended Neal Pollack’s piece on pot-smoking dads with a heart-warming call to arms: “The bottom line is to love your children regardless of how bad your heartburn is after consuming that entire bag of Doritos right before bed.”
4.) Damien from Canada, who was equally passionate on the subject of fatherly doobage [edited for grammar]: “I've been smoking pot for 10 years— not every day for 10 years, but close. I’m the experienced pot smoker, the one who uses it to relax but can still complete basic tasks…like saving the kids from a house fire. Honestly, you would do it so calmly and efficiently that maybe there would be time to actually put the fire out with the fire extinguisher you bought (because you smoke weed and get paranoid and think the house is going to light up.) Maybe the children will even learn a valuable lesson in fire extinguishing.”
5.) The anonymous commenter who described his life as a stealth-Jew—that is, a Christian guy who could pass for Jewish—in response to Rebecca DiLiberto’s piece about being a play-it-down Jew—that is, a Jewish girl who can pass for Christian. “I'm talking about the shiver I got from feeling that a big part of my identity was not really me, and then that maybe identity and authenticity were more elastic than I thought. Not wanting to get all medieval on essentialism's ass or anything, but the lesson for me was that "really me" was a little funkier a concept than I'd imagined.”
6.) Jewannabe, who eloquently explained his conversion in the comments section of Aaron Hamburger’s essay on religion envy: “When I first attended services at a Conservative synagogue — while still a practicing Catholic — the prayer and ceremony seemed cold in comparison. I remember thinking at that time that these poor Jews were missing out.”
7.) The anonymous boy who talked about dating a female rabbi apropos Jordie Gerson’s piece “Rabbinical School is Ruining My Love Life.” Not that we’re nosy, but isn’t her boyfriend Israeli? And doesn’t this guy’s English sound a little…Hebrew-inflected? Aww.
the public schools on our district can really give some good education to young kids. they have high standards,.