OneBraveThing

My US History class participated in a contest this week, called One Brave Thing. The idea was to make a Pinterest board as a class, and have at least 10 individuals post-- about something that inspires them, someone that inspires them, something brave they have done, or something brave they pledge to do. 

We got really into this the last 2 hours before the contest ended, and I think our board looks great. I don't want to link it, but after I posted one pin I kept thinking of more and more inspiring items, and decided to just make a cumulative blog post about it. (Some of these may end up on the gratitude page...)

My parents' sacrifice led them to leave everything they had ever known: family, culture, and a "normal" lifestyle. It led them to move more than 7,000 miles away from home for the sake of the betterment of their children's education, future, and security. This is an action not everyone can easily take, and for that abundance of bravery and selflessness they inspire me greatly.

My community and school inspires me. In a post 9/11 USA with news media filled with negative news related to Muslims, Islam, and South Asian countries on a daily basis, it amazes me that the more than two thousand students, teachers, and faculty treat me, a hijabi Muslim-Pakistani-American, with so much respect and tolerance. Their ability to look beyond the stereotypes and news, and focus on each person as an individual is such a great characteristic. When I read articles about bullying in other schools, I can never stop being grateful for the people around me. 

Education is such a tremendous privilege, and Malala Yousafzai made me reevaluate the immense amount of gratitude I should have for my easily accessible, quality education. This young girl fought for what she believed in, even it meant risking her life and liberty. She is such an inspiration to everyone, and even more for me because we share a common cultural heritage, but have vastly different life experiences. Malala makes me grateful for what I have been blessed with and motivates me to fight for other's educational right. I hope someday I can use my privileges to benefit others that are not as fortunate.

Who inspires you? 

Looking back

Four posts in four days?! That's like a new record for me :) More on that in a bit...

Blogger updated their app and I was looking through it yesterday and ended up reading quite a few of my "old" posts (ranging from 2008 to 2010). It is crazy/funny/entertaining/interesting how much my writing style, talking style, grammar/spelling, ideas, and overall tone has changed in just a few years. I noticed that I never followed through with a lot of things I said I'd do (i.e. shopping posts, nail tutorials, item reviews). Also, I think I am a lot less fluffy of a writer. Possibly. The AP classes essay style helped that develop I believe.

Afterwards, I ended up reading through an email folder of a friend (my main email has folders for people/school/etc.) and read old emails that exemplified the "growing up" even more.

All of that solidified the idea that I really should try to keep this blog updated more :) While I do hope I sorta kindda entertain the 2-3 people that read this blog (or maybe you guys are all just really nice), it's a nice little documentation of me changing over the years. For a very long time I used to write a diary, and although I still have one it's become more of a "private anger/saddness/I-miss-my-sister" journal. So, I mean, since the very much vast majority of the time that's not how I feel (minus the missing sister part), this blog is a much better representation.

Talking about being generally happy, you should check out the gratitude page if you're really bored one day or something. It's growing!

One of my favorite bloggers always puts a quote at the beginning/end of her blogs. I want to do that occasionally, it adds a nice touch. So....what was this blog post about anyway? growing up. yah :)

Although I think the writer of this quote didn't mean it so, it really reminds me of my sister. :)

“As I look back on all that's happened..growing up, growing together, changing you, changing me -- there were times when we dreamed together, when we laughed and cried together. As I look back on those days, I realize how much I truly miss you and how much I truly love you. The past may be gone forever..and whatever the future holds, our todays make the memories of tomorrow. So, my lifetime friend, it is with all my heart that I send you my love, hoping that you'll always carry my smile with you, for all we have meant to each other and for whatever the future may hold.”

Gratitude

So November 22nd was Thanksgiving here in USA. For those that don't know, the cultural story behind this holiday goes back to when America was just a British colony. The pilgrims came to USA with little knowledge of how to harvest crops and make a living from the land, and the native Indians taught them how. After a good harvest they held a Thanksgiving feast to commemorate their thankfulness for greatly needed food. More on this here (a more historically accurate version). This was made a national one day holiday by Abraham Lincoln during the civil war.

The basic cultural idea behind this holiday today is to take a moment to be grateful for what you have (and eat a nice dinner with family/friends). A lot of the blogs I follow will do gratitude list posts around this time and schools do activities where kids make projects centered around the idea of thankfulness. This is a concept that really should be a remembered year-round, so I decided to make this a continuous page on my blog.  I envision it as a continuous post with fun gratitude things as well (meaning, beyond the necessities). I might make some of them individual posts as well.

Which reminds me, if you ever need a boost about your life not being so bad after all, visit justlittlethings.net. 820+ little things that make life brighter :)

I would challenge other bloggers to try this as well! I think we all have plenty to be grateful about. :)
 ماریہ

 ماریہ

Random Questions

This past summer I wrote this up, and never published it due to the lack of formatting. It's funny how much some of these responses can change in just a few months. But I'll go ahead and post this, even though the color/font system is messed up and it's 5 months old, and hope that you enjoy it :)

[Semi] Fresh Start

*As I talk about new changes, I'll stick some random pictures from the last 5 months :)*

I sat down to change my blog design, and after a few minutes realized that I liked it how it was. I don't remember exactly when I updated the blog design to this nature-isque blue sky theme, but I guess it's one preference that hasn't changed over the years. I did shake up the fonts a little bit. Century Gothic is still an awesome font (in fact, blogger still shows my drafts in this font) and I have used it so much in the past 4 years that friends call it my "signature" font. But I've gotten into a fun phase of using "fun" fonts for homework headers, flyers, posters, and now, my blog. (side note, if you want to waste a lot of time making assignments look fun, dafont.com californiafonts.com fonts2u.com are all great places to start looking for fun, free fonts)

 These are my first pair of PUMPS!
And I absolutely love them!
Even if they aren't the most comfortable
 things on Earth.

In other news, in the 5 months that I was blog-quiet I took lots of pictures. This is a fact I discovered when my 32gb iPod* had 1gb of space left and I decided to go through and delete pictures. And after getting halfway through my album I realized the other half was from just the past 5-6 months. And considering I've had an iPod for almost 4 years, that's insane. I guess having a sibling wedding, double vacation, and needing to text your best friend who lives 4 houses away and sister that's 7,000 miles away every thing in your life's picture = lots and lots of pictures.

A fundraising walk with my yellow
shoes!  

Wasn't I talking about blog changes? oh yah. So I also changed the About Me thingy. For all I know, it may be different tomorrow because I literally sat down at 2:30am and typed words with periods in between that came to my head...that described me. I'll see if I agree with those words at some normal-people daylight hours. Only that I'm half-ly nocturnal and am awake at night and sleep during the day. That really is terrible. I need to fix my sleep schedule PRONTO! (is that an English word or a Spanish word? Sometimes I wonder if a particular word is English or Urdu. For example, a grocery cart is called a "trolley" in Urdu, which technically is ...British? i don't know. Imperialism and melting pots have made languages really confusing)

One of the fun vacations from this past summer
ended with a beautiful sunset on ship :) 

Back from digression. There's also no more "blogs I follow". I actually read lots of blogs on a very regular basis. The list I had was a list outdated though because I have an app on my iPod that has all of the 20+ some blogs I have. So one day I'll sit down and add them to my google list thing.


I think that is it. Might be doing a fun thankful post soon since today was officially Thanksgiving in US of A, but every day should be thanksgiving so i'm sure timely-ness doesn't matter for such a post :)

Have a fantastic day!

80s day for Homecoming Week means wearing
fashions I was never alive for and my parents
weren't part of, which means going over to your
 awesome neighbors the night before and getting
 tips on how to look like an American High
Schooler from the 80s! 

Summer Vacation Ramblings

I haven't posted in a while. About that.... :)

My sister's wedding is in... *checks iPod countdown app*  25 days. She's already gone to Pakistan though-- prewedding prep. Everyone asks me how my "getting ready for the wedding" is going. Well, here's the deal. It's kindda sorta very hard to prepare for a wedding when you're 7,000 miles away from the where the wedding is being held. I might buy shoes though, because Pakistan isn't good with comfortable, wide-foot heels. As I've been told, my shaadi dress is hot pink, and walimaa dress teal/pink/something pretty (quote my sister :D).

I miss her.

In other news, I hope the mehendi dress is bright yellow. Because I love bright yellow. I told my dad today that I'd love a bright yellow car. Something like this?

Source

That's a mini cooper by the way, one of my favorite cars. I highly highly highly doubt I'm getting that any time soon.  Dream big, right? haha... 

While I dream about bright yellow cars, I'm looking for a bright yellow crossbody purse. I have an old one that is really scratched up (I had it before the crossbody fashion craze and used it for a long time) but crossbody's are much easier for travel, especially if youre like me and carry everything you can possibly need while on the go. (My friend calls me "Maria Poppins" ...i've never seen Mary Poppins but apparently she carries everything?) 

Me gusta :) It's not sold anywhere near me though...

To add to this yellow-full blogpost, I cooked aloo ki tarkari (potato vegetable mix) yesterday. With mom/sis gone, I'm experimenting with cooking these days. And my dad is so awesome he'll eat anything I cook. Not that the aloo ki tarkari was bad or anything. (Lets ignore how easy it is to make. only my mom said the potatoes would be cooked in 10 minutes and it took like 35 before they tasted cooked. I obviously don't have the "see if it LOOKS done" ability yet) 

Summer vacation is boring without my sister. I'll probably be posting more. Though I have plenty of summer homework, cleaning, and packing to do. *sigh* 

Enough ramblings. Good night :)

more summer boredom activities. the color started fading the next day! :( 

Failures and other things :)

Hello!

So....NaBlaPoMo kindda failed.

It really wasn't the wisest idea to try doing it during final exam month.

In other news, I am putting the "pro" in procrastination but doing very random things and avoiding a good amount of homework I must do.

Like surfing Pininterest!

My sister told me about this app...mostly all I do on it is surf the "DIY and Crafts" section, and find super cool idea for random things: from hanging scarves to making flowers!

Like this one:

 Here's my rendition of that:

Super easy to make!

I also made two rings yesterday. I love big, obnoxious rings and kind of broke my pink one :(

  

 

I was also trying to make a teeka-ish thing that I could wear with my hijab, but that didn't turn out too well...the ones on pearl-daisy look so nice! :)

It's President's Day (aka sleep-in-and-relax) weekend, so I've been having an amazing omelete the past three days (tomato, onion,  green chili, dhanya [coriander], desi red chilli powder, mexican red chilli powder, black pepper, dried mint leaves :D) and Jalapeno Chicken noodles (+ hot sauce and lemon juice). It's been quite fantabulous.

They look a lot spicier than they were....

Some other things from this weekend:

My friend was doing another friend's nails...so I started doing henna :D

Finally got an email from my favorite university! :D PSAT/PLAN scores = tons of emails...my sister was like "did you get accepted" when I excitedly told her I got an email from Butler. We'll get there too Inshallah :)

and now I shall begin my homework :)

ماریہ

Beginnings 4 (Vitamin E oil & B&BW)

So like the average teenager, occasionally I break out. Thankfully, I don't have horrible acne, just periods of breaking out. Recently, however, I was breaking out for a long time & it left a lot of marks, so my sister told me to put this Vitamin E oil on my face before I sleep & it should help my marks. After using it for about 4-5 days, there is a pretty evident lightening of my marks. :)

The oil is:
Jason
Extra Strength
Vitamin E 32,000 IU
Pure Natural Skin Oil
Scar & Stretch Mark Treatment
(just wrote down the front of the bottle :)

You just dab a little on before you sleep, and while it's a little messy to sleep with (oil!) it helps a lot.

In other news, Bath & Body works is having their semi-annual sale and my sister got these adorable body mist bottles. The scent is country chic, but the bottles are so pretty! :)

Let's not mention how the pretty bottle cost more.... :p haha

ماریہ

Beginnings 3 (Homework break)

Uno: My news resolutions are failing so far :(
Dos: NaBloPoMo is very hard to do when your sleep schedule is wacky and you're awake during school and at night.
Tres: I think I should make resolution #5: Fall asleep the day BEFORE I need to wake up. (aka not in early morning hours)
Cuatro: That's sort of a restatement of fixing my sleep schedule.
Cinco: Why am I numbering this in Spanish? As I'm about halfway through the 3rd A&P Lab about the nervous system, I think I could probably make something about my nervous system and the parietal lobe being confused about all these languages. But I like Spanish.
Seis: Today I had to put serious thought into what 7+7 was
Seite: I think that's very adequate support for why I should go back to kindergarten. Coloring inside the lines sounds like fun.
Ocho: DID YOU KNOW? As of my last birthday, I can legally drop out of High School now. :D
Nueve: I don't really know how to do anything but school work, so working at McDonald's might not work out so well if I drop out. Evaluating my level of common sense, I would probably fail at flipping burgers.
Diez: I think it's time to finish the lab now.

ماریہ

Beginnings 2 (Hearing Problems?)

Hello!

Back to school today, finals next week...and fixing the sleep schedule didn't work so well the first day...

Quick post because I need to get back to homework. :)

I did a "test" for Anatomy & Physiology as a part of a lab. It required taking a hearing test on www.testmyhearingonline.com. The results told me I may be experiencing mild to significant hearing loss. :O Surprised, but then I realized that the test was probably inaccurate, as it was hard to estimate what "barely hearing" a tone qualifies as. Or maybe it was accurate and I'm loosing my hearing :p I completely didn't hear my teacher say this one thing was due Thursday ;)

I'll leave with a sneak peak of the nail post I'll be doing soon :)

ماریہ

Beginnings 1 (NY Resolutions)

Day 1 of NaBlaPoMo, Day 1 of 2012...I liked this popular tweet last night: "Chapter 2012, Page 1 of 366" (Leap year!) it's an interesting way to say it :)

While I'm a goal-oriented person, I've never made New Years resolutions. After watching the ball drop in Times Square on tv (or on my iPod, like this year) life moved on normally without an extra significance of a New Year. Maybe that's why for a couple weeks after the New Year I continue putting the old year on my school papers :)

But for the purpose of this blog, and just some reflection, I compiled a short list of resolutions. They're not necessarily year long goals, but just goals.

Here we go.

1) Read Quran daily/several times a week
2) Read more nonschool books
3) Fix my sleeping schedule
4) Get good grades?

I've already somewhat started 1 and 2 (downloaded a bunch of book samples on iBooks the other day, I'll pick some up from the library tomorrow hopefully ) and 3 and 4 make laugh. For the past several years I've tried to fix my sleeping schedule SOO much & epically failed. It's seems like a joke to put that on a resolutions list. And 4 because academic goals have always existed for me, so it's funny to actually write that down. They're a lot more specific than that, but the general statement covers it :)

Let's see how these resolutions work out...I'll add more over the year, because as I said, I make lots of goals :)

Inshallah may this next year bring happiness and success for everyone. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

ماریہ

(upcoming soon! A nail polish style/review)