To my fellow Jewish readers: Happy Yom Kippur! :)

All of us know that the Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the year for all of us. It is a day of atonement, repentance and forgiveness. I hope all of you will spend it asking for forgiveness from those people who you wronged, asking for forgiveness from G-d and attend a synagogue. That is what I'll be doing. May all of you be written in the book of life!

For people who are curious to learn more about Yom Kippur, you can go here. ;)

I received $1,337 in financial aid assistance for the current fall semester!

Right now I’m taking a few extra classes at Brooklyn College, one of the best public colleges in NYC. Like most college students, I have applied for financial aid by filling out a FAFSA. Yesterday I finally went to the financial aid office to find out if any financial aid was awarded to me. It turned out that I still received it even though I filled out a FAFSA not too long ago. This news made me very excited and my family happy because we were a little worried that I might not get financial aid this year. :)

Time is the most precious commodity we all have...

Because it's limited and once it's gone we can never get it back. I sometimes remind myself of this when I have free time. One occasion I thought about it is when I and my family went to Brighton Beach on Labor Day. I had a great time that day and all of us had a lot of fun. When walking on the beach, I thought about how I already lost a lot of valuable time in my life because I still continue to let my stuttering to control my life by stopping me from fully enjoying it and trying to make my dreams and ambitions a reality. Practically all my life I submitted to my stuttering and made a lot of sacrifices like missing on a lot of things that normal people experience. Basically I'm letting life to completely pass me by and not really participating in it like all of you. In other words I'm just like an observer that just observes what other people do with their lives and not doing anything with mine. I admit this kind of life is boring, not exciting and most of all meaningless. I live with this reality as I continue to lose more precious time as I get older by distracting myself with things I enjoy to do like the Internet. Clearly this is not normal and has to stop because I don't really want this kind of worthless life for me, especially when I know that I can completely change my life if I really wanted to and worked very hard.

I know that for me there's a way out if I'll have very strong hope, desire, determination and work very hard every day. That's why at present time I'm trying to change my life and get free from my stuttering once and for all. That means not letting my stuttering to hold me back from living and really enjoying life. At the same time I know that even if I'll be successful at getting free and winning my life back, I already lost a lot of very valuable time that I can never get back no matter what I do in addition on missing out on a lot of things life offers. This is a very important lesson to learn for all of us. I really hope that all of you will learn it too after reading about my experience, won't repeat my mistake and will use time you have left wisely and not just waste it away.