Metaphors & Medicine

The semester is finally over and I can return to the blissfulness of writing and wallowing away in a world where voices in my head don't mean I'm crazy, they just mean a story is being brewed. Finally. Unfortunately, I'm not typing this post on a high note. In fact, as my fingers run across the keyboard today, I mourn for the people I am about to type about. The children of Newtown who perished in the devastating shooting this past Friday, their teachers, their heartbroken parents, and every other person affected by this tragedy in one way or another. And even if you're a hundred miles away from the site of the tragedy, that doesn't mean you can't be affected by it. I know I am. I had heard about the shooting minutes after I finished my last final of the semester, bid my friends goodbye, and headed home about to celebrate the end of a hard and stressful semester. Instead of enjoying the beginning of my winter break though, I ended up on my couch, reminiscing...

Push yourself to your limits and past them. Don't give up even when you're on the verge of it. Maintain every ounce of power you have, even if it's only a bit. If you're really passionate about something, don't let others' opinions stop you. In fact, do it just because they said you couldn't. And if you feel afraid to, that's the perfect time to look yourself in the mirror and say, "I'm only here because I did everything I was afraid to do". Once you've done what you wanted to do, and people look at you in amazement, admire you for your courage, envy you for your confidence, remind yourself every time you feel that fear again, that it's the perfect time to push yourself when you're afraid. Keeping wishing :) -Wishful Dreamer

"All of a sudden there were people screaming. I saw people jumping out of the building. Their arms were flailing. I stopped taking pictures and started crying."  -Machael Walters 11 years ago, I remember coming home in the middle of the school day to sit in front of the TV with my mother and watch two big buildings fall into a cape of billowing black smoke. People screamed in the background and the scene repeated. More people screamed and the buildings collapsed again, this time slower, slowly enough for us to realize how people's lives were going to change after that moment. Children lost fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles. People lost their best friends. Grown men lost their children. And even though we weren't anywhere near New York, we and nearly every other American Muslim lost something that day too. After that day, my mother was afraid to leave the house for days because of the hijab  on her head that clearly pointed her out in a group as a MUSLIM. She got ...

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." -Albert Einstein I still remember the first time I learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. Everyone knew how to do it and I wanted to do it too. I remember being deathly afraid of it and I just knew I was going to fall flat on my face or scrape my knee. My dad was holding onto the bike for me though and I knew no matter what that I wouldn't fall. And if I did, he definitely wouldn't let me bleed to death. So I did it. I lifted my feet off the ground, held onto the handlebars as tight as I could, and peddled. I peddled so hard I didn't even notice when my dad let go, but I noticed when he was there to help me stop.  Those were the simple times, when the biggest problems were how to learn to ride a bike, or to tie our shoelaces, or running out of band aids.  I remember a period of time later when I was watc...

One day Prophet Muhammad  (PBUH) said to his companions:  Would that I can see my brothers coming toward me to the pool and welcome them with bowls filled with sweet juices. Before entering the paradise, I wish I can offer them from my Pool of Kawsar. Upon these words, the companions said: O Messenger of God! Are we not your brothers? He replied: You are my companions. And my brothers are the believers who believe in me without seeing me. Surely, I ask of my Lord to illuminate my eyes with you and the believers who believe without seeing me. It is the last day of Ramadan, the final day of this long month that we've all been working so hard in. Whether it be learning to have patience, trying to finish reading the Qur'an, learning and understanding it, or getting rid of bad habits, it has been a month of progress and effort for a lot of us.  Here's the thing about Ramadan though: everything that we've done is only between us and Allah (SWT). No one else knows what w...

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said,   "The best day during which the sun have risen is Friday. It is the Day Adam was created. It is the day when Adam entered paradise and also when he was taken out from it. It is also the day on which the day of judgment takes place." Let us be the best we can be on this Friday, do the best we can do, and live the best we can live.  Happy Friday! :) -Wishful Dreamer

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “Every religion has a distinct characteristic, and the distinct characteristic of Islam is modesty.”  The beauty of this hadeeth gave me chills.  Think of a time when you were walking through the hallways of your school with a scarf on your head, a time when you had to excuse yourself from your group of friends so you can go pray, or even a time when you couldn't eat the Halloween candy at school as a kid because you were fasting. Those are characteristics of Islam. Some are more obvious than others because just from looking at you, others know that you are Muslim.  You may have thanked God for helping you with a difficult test. You may have stayed at home prom night because you couldn't wear the revealing prom dresses and didn't want to be at the dance showing off your body. The simple motion of putting a prayer skirt on before praying is a sign of modesty. Lowering your gaze in public instead of checking people out is a sign o...

The Prophet (PBUH) said: "None of you [truely] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." What does this hadeeth make us think? It might remind us of all the times we were ever jealous of someone we knew. It might remind us of a time when we were beaten at a competition and weren't happy for the winner. It might also remind us of the guilt we might have felt afterwards. The guilt is good. This means that we understand that feeling that way is wrong. We should spend our time being happy for our fellow Muslim rather than wondering why they got that grade and we didn't, or why they got the better job and we didn't. Going back to what the Prophet (PBUH) said, we aren't going to be truly Muslims until we're happy for our fellow Muslim. Truly happy. So from now on,if we ever encounter feelings of jealousy or unhappiness for someone, let's remember what our prophet said and let's think of how much easier our life would be...

Hello Dreamers! First of all, Ramadan Mubarak! I hope fasting has not been hard these past two days for those of you who are fasting. Let's just keep thinking of the reward that we will get in sha Allah for staying patient for 16 hours everyday.  Something else I wanted to mention: THIS IS THE 10TH POST!!! YAAAAYYY!! So because this is the 10th post, I'm going to celebrate by posting the first hadeeth of Ramadan. :) Ready? The Prophet PBUH said, "Whoever observes fasts during the month of Ramadan out of sincere faith, and hoping to attain Allah's rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven." -Sahih al-Bukhari This is definitely a hadeeth that we should all keep on our minds during this holy month whenever we feel like we just can't get through the day. There are days in Ramadan when it is so easy to fast and other days when we just don't think we can wait a few more hours. Just think that Allah wouldn't have given you this job you ...

So there's only a few minutes until Monday is over. So this post is going to be short. Ramadan is coming up. The Holy month of Ramadan begins this Friday. It's a time to pray, pray, and pray. It's a time to fast and think of all the blessings Allah has praised us with. It's a time to ask for forgiveness and mercy. It's the most exciting and important time of the year for Muslims all over the world. A lot of people wonder why we fast. Have you ever asked yourself that? When you're young, your parents tell you it's so you can feel with the poor or it's just because Allah said we have to. Yes, both are right. But there's more to it. We fast because we are doing this one big thing for Allah so he can reward us with something even bigger. It's a test for us. It's a time for us to learn to control our temptations and learn patience. It's a time to change. Allah has given us this whole month to do everything for him. It's a window of opp...

Hello Dreamers! It's been long, I know. June drove me away with all its blissfulness and distracted me from doing one of my favorite things: blogging! But I promise I was still dreaming about all the things I could blog about when my fingers would finally get back to the keyboard. This weekend, something huge and inspirational happened to me. My favorite author, Jodi Picoult, came on her book tour to a city near me and I was able to attend her signing. It was one of the most inspiring moments of my life as a wannabe writer. ;) Jodi Picoult, if you're interested in dreaming like me, wrote 20 novels including My Sister's Keeper, The Pact, Perfect Match, Vanishing Acts , and more. I started reading her books at about age 13-14 right after I finished the Harry Potter series (3 times!). I had already started writing short stories, courtesy of J.K Rowling's amazing way of creating such a creative masterpiece. Then, a friend of mine did something I won't forget: sh...

There are many moments in life that are so wonderful that you just want to close your eyes and thank God for blessing you with such an amazing memory and for making you feel so happy. It is a moment so beautiful that it brings tears to your eyes, tears of sadness and tears of joy. Graduation. This past weekend, I graduated high school. I've got to say it was a big moment for me. No, not because I didn't think I'd graduate high school but because I was surprised that I had gotten through it and finished it with a happy ending. As I recall my four years of high school, I realize how different and CRAZY they were. They SO were full of ups and downs that I'm surprised I'm still standing on my feet right now. I didn't feel like I had a strong group of friends around me until my sophomore year. And then I had to move away from them. And make completely new friends during the most crucial year of my high school career. It was so difficult, SO freaking hard to ope...

I'm so sorry my dear dreamers that I haven't posted in a while! I have been burdened with the workload that the final days of my senior year in high school have to give me! This post will also be short, but let me reassure you that I only have two days of school left and hopefully I will begin to post more than just on Mondays. But you will have to wait :) I just wanted to share a few things. High school is ending. It seems so surreal. I can't imagine not coming back to my school on September 1st, but instead, will be on an entirely new campus with people I don't know. It's scary yet exciting at the same time. If you asked me last year if I was ready to make friends AGAIN in college, after having moved twice, I would've said, "Please, don't speak of such a horrible day." Now I feel ready. I realize that life is always changing. Some people will tell you change is a bad thing. That is twists and turns your life in ways you never thought possible...

Hmm, got you thinking there, didn't I? Just yesterday, I had a discussion with a few friends about this question. We had to think about it for a few minutes to. What does it really mean to be American? Do you have to be born here to be American? Do you have to have an American passport? Are you still American if you've lived in America your whole life but you aren't a citizen? What if you're like me, lived in two different countries during your lifetime and have a different nationality? Does the fact that I'm an American citizen and a Palestinian citizen make me Palestinian or American? Here's what I said: I think that as long as you can refer to America as your home, no matter who you are or where your family is from, you're still an American.  And this doesn't just concern America. If a person is American but has lived in Germany or France during their life, and they can somehow refer to that place as home, then that makes them German or Fren...

It's a four letter word that nearly every single person in high school is talking about right now: PROM. Yes, Prom. While to most high school students, prom is THE night to look forward to. Is it wrong to say that I,for one, look forward to graduation more? If you don't say you're going to prom, you end up getting a lot of "you're going to be the only one left out" or "when we meet a reunion in a few years and talk about prom, you'll be the only one who doesn't have any memories to share" or (my personal favorite) "you will miss out on so much". I beg to differ.  I'm sorry but what will I miss out on? Dancing? Sweating? Pictures? Hanging out with friends? Dinner? Am I the only one who realizes that these things can be done anywhere or at any other time but prom. But it's PROM. Maybe I'm being very critical here, maybe not. Some of you will agree with this, while others might disagree and beg for me to get to my...

"Be careful, guys, she might blow up the school." I remember my breath catching and my mind freezing up in utter shock for a minute when I heard those words come from a boy standing right behind me. We were in the unfortunately long lunch line at school and that boy along with his group of friends were standing right behind my friend and I, laughing their heads off about God knows what (I stopped bothering to listen after I heard "I'm already going to court because of that girl"). But their voices were louder than anyone else's around me, so I could still hear them despite my attempts not to. They were poking the people around them (including my friend and I) and were really annoying us. That was when I turned around in frustration and said, "Do you guys need anything?" They all looked at me and the one nearest to me in a blue shirt said, "No." I rolled my eyes and faced the front of the line again, my friend looking at me. And then...

"The number of those who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed." -Richard Brinsley Sheridan As an American Muslim, dealing with criticism from people is something I brace myself for. No, don't think that is it something that I accept when I say that I deal with it. Rather I make excuses for those people who do judge me before they really know anything about me other than the scarf on my head. I convince myself that they are ignorant people who have no interest in getting to know me. They just want to judge me. So I just deal with it, not accept it and try to educate those who do ask questions about my culture or religion. I agree that I can help make a change in the world just by helping to create less ignorant and judgemental people.  A few weeks ago, I encountered such people. People who were willing to learn about my background. My family and I put together an exhibit about Palestine (FYI: Palestine is a country located in the Midd...

I wanted to belong here But something felt so wrong here -Breakaway No, I'm not one of those people who post song lyrics to explain every moments of their lives, but this is my first post, and I'm listening to Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway as I try to put my words down on here. I just felt like those two lines really relate to what I am about to talk about. Me. Since you and I are both new here, I thought I'd introduce myself, give you a reason to keep reading my blog, and give you a reason to believe that I really hope you find a friend in me. Here's my story: I am a writer. I love writing. I believe words run through my veins with my blood, dialogue is constantly on play in my head, and I could speak in metaphors all day if I wanted to. Really, try me. ;) Point is, I am a very figurative yet literal person. And when my life was forced to change, I used writing to help me get through it. After my sophomore in high school, I moved away from the Middle East (whe...