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!