That’s a soundbite from the meeting with my principal today. She assures me that she and the AP (Assistant Principal) are really mad about the fact that I didn’t give notice, which I didn’t. I was so stressed about the situation, I waited until the last minute to take the day off because I knew the situation would be bad and so of course it was. Last year, when I got really ill, my principal and AP berated me for not coming in and my boyfriend had to run around town getting doctors’ notes while I burned up with a truly horrid fever.

So this time, they swear the issue is that I didn’t give notice but I gave over a week’s notice for Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. In a phone message on Erev Sukkot, she implied that it was ridiculous that I had to take two days off “next week” too. In person, she tried to guilt me about whether or not I really care about the children. I stayed after school today to help many a wayward student “catch up” and sort their grades out for about 3-4 hours unpaid (as always).

Anyway, she basically demanded a letter from the rabbi that I really HAD to take the days off to observe. I know I’m on the fast track but I really feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life (at least years and years of it) to do this. Once I decided to convert, it really meant to me that I had to observe everything that I could without question that I had knowledge about observing. I explained to her that converting means that you are “Jewish-in-training” so you DO everything a Jew does. That’s whe the “normal Jew” thing came up. I was so disgusted.

I didn’t cry in front of her but I’ve cried several nights today. I cried under the Sukkot. How can you be subject to anti-Semitism BEFORE converting?