one ton!Man’s Worldly Goods and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, in which the basis of the wealth of nations and the problems of different economic systems is described. My involvement in the history club at high school has also been a great way to develop my analytical skills in reading and writing. Further research in college courses sparked my passion for current societal affairs. I realized that without knowledge and understanding of today’s society, there would be no way to make a change that you want to see in society. Throughout these past years, I have learned innovative concepts and have been equipped with the skills to make my efforts in the university invaluable.

An experience that shaped me as an individual was my Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish ceremony when a boy turns 13 years old and is considered a man. I always looked forward to my Bar Mitzvah, thinking that I would finally be treated as an adult. However, I realized that I would now have new responsibilities such as finding a job, doing chores around the house, and being reliable enough to get things done myself, all of which made me weary of becoming a man; fear had set in. So I struggled like any other individual would; grappling my apprehension of adulthood while taking on the tasks as best I could. Having had both spurs of success and failure through this whole experience, I understood that idleness would deem any individual as impotent in their goals, and therefore only a sense of resilience, urgency, and even fear could ignite the prowess to overcome such obstacles.
It was tradition for the Bar Mitzvah boy to read verses of the Torah, dance at the festive ceremony, and give an extensive speech. Not to mention all of these activities had to be done in front of close family and friends, thus another reason to be timid and reluctant of this whole ordeal. First came reciting the Torah, an assignment that was made more difficult in that the lines had to be "sung",