TALK '10

I was reminded recently that I never really posted about how my speech/presentation went. So I'm finally getting around to it. Word up.

About an hour and a half before it started, an email went out saying the location was being changed. This was crappy because a) it didn't give ample notice, and b) it was moved from the business school to a different building, which means it was less likely that people would leave our lovely safe haven to venture elsewhere. Despite this, our turnout was decent.

My partner went first, and his speech was awesome. As I knew it would be since we practiced together.

Here is a pretty brief overview of what I talked about in each of my slides (total presentation was 20 minutes).

SLIDE 1

Thanks to Dan Mega for this awesome shirt. I talked about my middle name (which is a Hebrew word), what it means, and why I never use it (answer: because no one can pronounce it and because I go through enough strife having the same first name as a Disney princess).

SLIDE 2 (all the slides had pictures but I don't want to post pictures of my family here, seems weird)

My grandparents. Their time in Auschwitz, how a Nazi guard went out of his way to save my grandpa's life, and why being the descendant of Holocaust survivors makes me want to raise a Jewish family.

SLIDE 3

My family (and our awesome dog). How having 2 New Yorker parents and spending the first 8 years of my life in New York City made me think that NYC is the best place on Earth.

SLIDE 4

Jew school. Being the only non-orthodox family at an orthodox Jewish private school. Having half my classes taught in Hebrew, praying twice a day, and having all my friends and teachers tell me that going to public high school was going to ruin me.

SLIDE 5

High school. Why it was awesome and liberating compared to private school. How I ate my first non-kosher meal and had no idea.

SLIDE 6Tufts. Some stuff I did there (including bungee jumping in New Zealand, pictured above). How I managed to declare a second major in Judaic Studies a week before graduating, and how my JS education opened my eyes to exactly how conservative my private school education was.

SLIDE 7

Work. What it was like working for a company that no longer exists due to the financial industry meltdown. The time I ran into our (very well known) CEO in the elevator while looking like an asshole. Managing the layoffs of hundreds of people and why that sucked.

SLIDE 8

Business school. Why being in the minority as a Jew has been a learning experience. Why I'm always fascinated by what other religions and cultures do. Some times that I was unfamiliar with what was going on, like going to my first Catholic mass and why I thought I had to make out with everyone at the end. Conclusion.

That's it! It was a really great experience both getting to share this with my classmates, and getting to reflect upon the parts of my life that I hardly ever think about anymore. Good times indeed.