Hi everyone. Growing up I was pretty much the only Jewish kid at my school except for one other non observant boy. I didn’t have a strong Jewish identity or anything and honestly I didn’t even know it was an ethnicity and not just a religion (I thought I was ethnically Ukrainian because that’s where my mom is from). However, I always struggled to fit in with other white girls and was therefore an outcast in my 95% white suburb. In middle school and high school I mainly befriended East asian and Indian students, though there weren’t a lot of them.
Again, I didn’t see myself as ethnically distinct from other white people, I mean maybe a little since my mom had an accent, but by 6th grade or so I knew I was “different” and didn’t really expect to fit in with them. This especially sucked during sports because I never had any friends and was so lonely. At one point there was a Hispanic girl on the soccer team who was my friend but then she moved, lol.
In college and afterwards, I have found wonderful jewish communities and pretty much all my friends are Jewish. It’s super interesting to me that ethnicity can shape personalities this strongly, because again I didn’t identify as the “odd one out” Jewish kid growing up but I just never meshed with the other Northern European mix white girls.
Anyone else have this experience? Just curious! Thanks!
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