It’s been an interesting, beautiful, difficult kind of year. The year 2010 has brought some unexpected changes in my life – and no matter how wonderful or heartbreaking – Judaism teaches us that “this is for good, too.”

If you’ve followed my blog Rendezvous with G-d, and now Girls Meet G-d, you will know that I have had a lot of questions over the year. Whether it be about faith or boys, about direction or family, I always ask if religion has anything to say about it. Moving in with two awesome girls this August, I’ve kind of “settled” into my own with an apartment I love, and a graduate program that pushes my potential day in and day out.

And as that program got my stress level to an all-time high, Hanukkah came right around finals, reminding me to stay still for a little while and reflect on some miracles.

This year’s Hanukkah was especially nice because our lovely roommate Annie surprised Farrah and I with a gift each night, a tradition typically reserved for children of the family. It kind of made it hard to say goodbye to Hanukkah afterward, as I still expect gifts on the table every night. Farrah had us light candles and would say a prayer and meditation. (No, we do not sit around and talk about G-d all the time, but for a little while, we did.) All of this reminded me of why I loved Hanukkah as a kid, the one time of year I felt especially proud and excited to be Jewish.

Miracles happen in our life all the time. I do not believe it is a coincidence that I am at this point. Religion teaches us that we are exactly where we need to be to get to where we need to go. I don’t think it is a coincidence that I was assigned to spend time in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, hanging out at Gospel churches and the like, getting to know people who pray like its their job. It’s not a coincidence I get to interview people whose life I will never know firsthand, but am lucky enough they invite me in. And, it’s not a coincidence that I made a new best friend in a Muslim girl from Florida (Hey, Carmel!).

A new friend pointed out, over red wine on a Saturday afternoon, that my internal struggle with writing this blog, in first person, is that I don’t find myself in myself but myself in other people. That is why I love writing about them – anyone else – but me. And while I hope that my learning from other people has shown through in this blog, that you have maybe learned something from my own journey and that of my roommates and friends here at Girls Meet G-d.

I know some of you have wanted to hear more about my dating life – and yepp, it is quite the story – but I’m sure you’ll understand when I say I like to keep some things private. Writing about my faith is hard enough.

All I can tell you is that if I had to sum myself up, I think too much, love too hard and am terrified of disappointment. As this year wraps up, and I begin to spend more time with best friends and family, I would like to make a conscious effort to fall on my face a little more and then laugh about it. That might just be the only real way to get things done in life.

I want to close this post by just wishing all our readers a Happy Holiday! I hope 2010 was a learning experience for you, as it was for me. And thanks to Busted Halo for giving us this platform to explore the things we understand the least. Ciao until 2011… !!