why I'm not an aidel maidel

as you may have heard... i had a mini-flip during my time in seminary.

I call it a mini-flip, because I pretty much came home the same person I left. I definitely learned a lot, became really inspired and made some hachlatahs in the Holy Land, but I also didn't lose something very important to me - my personality!

What are the top three ways that you know your flipped-out friend is either a) going to flip back or b) is faking it:

# 1 your friend loses their personality and tries to personify an "aidel maidel" or a "shtarkie".

# 2 your friend starts speaking with a Yeshivish/Bais Yacov accent

#3 your friend asks you not to speak Lashon Harah around them (resulting in convos about men/women in the parsha, rather than men/women in her/his life)

Ok, I guess I can understand #3, even if we now have nothing in common anymore and I'd rather watch paint dry than talk to my friend on the phone.

But who are we kidding? You grew up with this person, and remember how this person was the "rebel" in your high school and always fought with the teachers and was the reason the school made your class listen to a lecture on shomer negiah.

People can change. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to be more machmir.

But you can still be a maidel without the aidel! and that's why I'm MM!