CTeenConnection

Hello everyone! My name is Sydney Winawer, representing CTeen of West Suffolk County. I am a very outgoing, dedicated, and have an everlasting love for Judaism. Dedication and determination have helped me overcome many challenges throughout my life. One of the challenges I have overcome recently is school and school work. Throughout most of my school years, I wasn’t the strongest student. What came easy to the average student did not come easy to me. With lots of help and support, and of course hard work, I became much stronger than ever before. This kind of dedication and determination also helped me form a stronger bond with Judaism. I’ve started taking on a lot of new mitzvot recently, like keeping Shabbat, which has not been easy. The decision to start keeping Shabbat happened at the end of the summer, during a trip to Six Flags with my CTeen chapter. We had been trying to convince our CTeen Rabbi to ride a roller coaster with us, but he wouldn’t budge. After a couple of minutes, he told me that he would ride the roller coaster, I’d have to promise to take on a challenge to keep Shabbat the following week. I accepted the challenge, and he came on the roller coaster! The following week, I kept Shabbat! Overall, Cteen has helped me to connect to Judaism and given me the confidence to take on any challenge that comes my way. I hope that by writing for CTeen Connection, I will be able to inspire teens just like me!