Boring Things That Change Your Life

This morning, in an e-mail, a friend complainedabout doing something very boooooooorrrriiiing.

And it started a train of thought that sent me all the way back to this class I took in college that I expected to be totally uninformative. But I was curious.

It was a class in Judaism.

Now, you have to understand, by that point in mylife I had spent nearly 18 years in Jewish schools,from the age of 2 in nursery - to Yeshiva University,while I was still in high school. So, I knew the class would be boring. But I wanted to know how auniversity, in a secular environment, would teach acourse like this.

And, I'll admit, the class was nearly as boring asI might have expected - except for the teacher.You couldn't help being charmed by Rabbi Bergman. He fascinated me. He was the first rabbi I'd evermet who didn't have an eastern European, Yiddishaccent. He spoke American like a native. And he had street smarts. But more than that - he had warmth - and made us all welcome.

But that wasn't what caused my life to change. It was just the first part of a chain of events.
The following year, I took another class I thoughtwould be boring - one of those fillers to meet arequirement - sociology. [yaaaaawwwn]

I that class there was this loud, middle-agedwoman with a screechy voice and lots of opinions. She was always the first to stand up and speak out on any topic - usually with a controversial opinion. Mesmerizing, though. She looked like someone's mom - and was.

She turned out to be Rabbi Bergman's wife. And we hit it off immediately, because, having met him gave me an excuse to engage her in conversation. (You have NO idea how shy I am, and how rare it is for me to start a conversation with somone.) But, with Pnina, I could, because of the previous connection.

Aside from welcoming me into their family, they got me THE job in a national CPA firm [Ernst & Ernst] that started me onmy way to learn about income taxes.

So, sitting in on that first boring class started achain of events, leading me to meet you!

Next time you have to do something you're reluctantto do, look upon it as an adventure. Just watch what fun it bring you - in the long run!

Best wishes

Eva Rosenberg
Your TaxMama