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Well I am in the same boat as you, I have started the process yet.

So although I can think and or theroize, I felt it best to get the answer from some more sociallyactive and experienced individuals.
My concern was not just in the realm of school yard style taughts, but how it may effect my social status, career, married life and anything else in the future.

Dinu's question leads me to believe he's worried about being persecuted if he becomes a Jew. This is not just a silly fear, not just a thing of the past. Anti-Jewish sentiments are all over the world, all over your country, your province or state, your city, maybe your neighborhood. It's such a big issue that 1500 years ago, Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) codified the questions that one should ask a person who comes and says he wants to be a Jew. The very first question is, literally, "Are you crazy? In these times, with the anti-Jewish sentiment as strong as it is, you really want to associate yourself with our People?" Times have not changed all that much, have they? It's always been dangerous to be a Jew, and even to associate with Jews. So why do we do it? Why do we do so many things that make us stand out as different, knowing that people will dislike us, fear us, hate us? What is it about the Jew that is so threatening that people have to hit us, fire us from jobs, run us out of towns and countries, kill us, try to wipe us out, just to control it? We don't know. And why don't we hide our Jewishness, lie about it if asked, save our lives through silence or deception? It's hard to identify the reasons even in our own hearts, let alone try to describe the reasons to each other or anyone else.

We do know about the Passover story, though. Not the part about the slavery, or the part with the plagues, or the part where Moses lifts his staff and Hashem parts the Sea of Reeds so that the Israelites can cross. There's one little part in the middle that's fascinating, and it's almost never mentioned. It's the part between the Ninth Plague (Darkness) and the Tenth Plague (Death of the Firstborn). Read the first ten chapters of Exodus and take notes: Nine plagues happened. Each time a new plague occurred, Moses would say to the Israelites, "Okay, so there's going to be a plague. Hashem will send a plague to the Egyptians, they'll get scared, and they'll let us go." Each time there was a plague, Par'oh (Pharaoh, in English) would say, "That's all very well, but no, you can't go." Then in chapter 11, Moses says, "Okay, there's only one more plague. Hashem will send this plague, and then for sure we'll get to go. Now, here's what you do, before the tenth plague happens..."

And Moses tells them to take a sheep out of their flocks, one for every household. They're to parade this sheep around for four days. Egyptians are going to love this, because sheep are a holy animal to them, much like cows to modern Hindus. Then on the fourth day, they're to take this sheep into the public area, where every Eyptian and his mother's pet crocodile can see them, and they're going to slaughter that sheep. They're going to publicly kill the animal that the Egyptians revere. Not only that, oh no! They're then going to butcher it, roast the meat in public, feast on it in public, right where the Egyptians can see. Then they're going to take the blood from the sheep and splash it on their doorposts. That way, even if any Egyptian was left who hadn't seen them killing, cooking, and eating the sheep, they'll still see the sheep's blood, and know what was done.

Then they're supposed to go to bed and sleep until morning. In the morning, all the Egyptian firstborn will be dead, and they'll all -- Par'oh included -- say, "Get the $*@# out of here, you sheep-killing, baby-killing, horrible persons!" And then the Israelites are supposed to just waltz out of there, merry as you please, and the Egyptians aren't going to chase them down and kill them to get back at them???

Here's where the miracle of Passover happens, in my opinion. The Plagues aren't the miracles. They're just God, doing things that God is capable of doing because God is all-powerful. That's nothing new, is it? We all know that God is the maker and ruler of all things; even the Egyptians had to know it by now. The parting of the Reed Sea? Again, that's just God doing what God does: showing his might in the world. It's awesome, it's terrifyingly beautiful to behold, but in the end, we all know that an all-powerful God can do stuff that involves power.

You have to understand, there had already been nine plagues at this point, and not once had the promise of freedom come true because of any of them. How in the world are the Israelites supposed to believe that it will happen because of the Tenth Plague? Moses is 0-for-9 at this point!

The real Passover miracle happens, I think, when these downtrodden slaves heard what they were supposed to do ...and they did it.

These people were oppressed harshly for four hundred years. They were made to labor, they were mocked, they were sat upon, spat upon, treated like property, given no reason to have hope or faith in anything. Yet, when told, "Go and desecrate something that is sacred to Egypt, and then splash the evidence all over your doorposts. Thumb your nose at what all of Egypt holds dear. Go ahead. I'll save you this time. No, really," they did it.

And not only did they do it, the Talmud tells us, but some Egyptians did it, too. Why? Because they wanted so much to be a part of this People, to be attached to the God of Israel, that they were willing to risk death at the hands of their fellow Egyptians, under the hope that the God of Israel would take them on, too. What faith it took, to believe that Hashem would know the difference between an Egyptian oppressor and an Egyptian believer in Hashem! To believe it so strongly that they were willing to slaughter their own (former) holy symbol, to eat its meat, to splash its blood on their doors! They had guts, didn't they? They, too, put out the biggest sign that they could for all the neighbors: "Our allegiance has changed. We are not with you anymore, Mother Egypt. We are with them now, these slaves that are about to pick up and walk out without so much as a kiss-my-foot or have-an-apple. Nertz to you."

That, good neighbor, is faith. And that's why I would not think of myself as a real Jew if I couldn't talk about Shabbat with people who talk about Sabbath in church; if I was too afraid put a mezuzah on every doorpost of my home, inside and out. Being open about my Jewishness? That's my slaughtered sheep, that's my bloody doorpost. That's my "Nertz to you, and nertz to your Par'oh!" for the majority culture who think I should just accept Jesus or Islam or the Baha'u'llah. The People of Israel have kept to the faith in Hashem for 3,800 years. Jews in Nazi-controlled Europe put up mezuzot on their doorposts, too, even knowing that the very next day they would surely be taken to the death camps. I'm not going to be the one that breaks the chain, just because someone gives me a dirty look on the subway.

Also I forgot to mention in my last comment, I wished to apologize for the delay in my response, I have been busy but I will get to them slowly but surely.

Thank you (and everyone else) for answer them, I imagine I am probably start to wear on your nerves. Yes, I intend to speak with a Rabbi evantually, but as bad as it sounds I am very shy and considering his status it makes it all the harder to summon the courage and I want to make sure I have some considerable knowledge on it before I can consider it.
Tthe statements of how he holds my religous life in the palm of his hand (basically), type of statement did not help sweatdrop Kidding I know it is not meant to frighten.

I know of all the local religous facilites, so no worries there just got to gather the courage.
Thank you very much on the advice on how to approach it is one of the main concerns I had about proceeding.
I must say it seems as if there treat the whole procedure rather secretive,
I guess it prevents the isolation that I discussed early thou.
I just never heard of anyother religions approaching it this way.

Thanks

As horrible as it sounds, I can't wait for time and a half or time x2 to work on Christmas and other major Christian holidays. (I want to work in medicine too)

Don't you want to be a doctor, or am I just making that up?

Competition for the highest paying job in America? there's a reason it's insane.

This might be a slightly biased opinion, but have you considered other medical professions (Dental/Optometry/Osteopathy/etc.)? The competition is a tad bit less cutthroat for most of these schools and you do end up becoming a doctor and helping people in the end. Also, it is not mandatory to have a million and a half on-site hours prior to applying to these schools like it is for most med schools. They are looking for some experience to show that you know what you are getting yourself into, but they don't require you to be superhuman. Don't get me wrong, there are still high requirements for entry and the workload is intense, but it is a bit more managable for the most part.

I'm a first year student at SUNY Optometry in NYC right now, so if you are at all interested let me know. 3nodding

...I haven't introduced myself. How rude. My name is Jade. heart