Peace outweighs

I absolutely loved my trip to Atlanta last month. Something about my relatives there and the city just brought me a sense of calm. GOD bless my fam down there for having opened their homes to us. I've spent many hours in the sun in their backyard just thinking about my life and how much being in ATL nullified my horrendous trip to Toronto.

I just have to mention one thing from my trip, seeing that I've been extremely emotional lately, I might as well share my experience.

I was staying with my uncles' family while in Toronto. I figured since I rarely see them and they are pretty much the only blood relative I have in Canada, I have to pay them a visit.

Now my uncle is known to be a "wadaad" and every phonecall/visit usually involved a 10-30 minutes lecture on wearing the hijab and being a better Muslim. Every time I spoke to him, it only stopped at that topic. "Inshallah, adheer, I will wear the hijab once I have settled my soul" But this visit, opened up a can of worms that unfortunately led me to vow never to visit again.

This is the internet and I will not bash my relatives, but I will say this: Talking down to your relatives about Islam, or any topic, will cause them to resent you AND whatever it is you're lecturing them about.

I am a Muslim first and foremost. Nothing will ever change that. My life is and will always be dedicated to Allah subhanahu waa ta'aalah. I know what my role is as a Muslim woman, daughter, sister and inshallah eventually a wife and mother. I may have made many many many mistakes in my lifetime, but we all know who we have to answer to at the end of all days. I believe in Peace and Sacrifice with all my heart and soul.

I took this picture above in Atlanta, in the backyard of my fam, and this is just a piece of the beauty I expressed and felt on my trip down there. I am grateful for who I have become, I am grateful for my family, I am eternally grateful for everything I was given and everything I can and will provide for others in my future. I wish only that some of my own family members can be grateful for the love in their lives, because once that love is lost, it will be impossible to regain it back.

Somali youth, a complete and UTTER failure. PERIOD.

I haven't posted anything for the past few weeks but only because I have gone through so many incidents that left me wondering about our own people.

I don't want to generalize, and I sure as hell don't want to trash our community but as more time passes, I realize how impossible it is to wipe out ignorance from the Somali community. No matter how hard we try as individuals, I think that our community is doomed as a group. Maybe you, and I individually, we can accomplish our own personal goals throughout our lives, but to connect with the rest of the community for the sake of our future, its damn near impossible.

I'm saying this after attending the 3rd Annual Somali Youth Conference from hell which took place yesterday in Ottawa. While there are children across the globe that are absolutely content with the two grains of rice a day plus rocks as a form of entertainment, we have here the most spoiled, UNDISCIPLINED, ignorant, unintelligent kids in our city with the lowest attention spans ever recorded.

I've forever been labeled as the eternal optimist, looking at life with a very rosy pair of glasses, but last night, my glasses were definately covered in soot, emitted from the essence of the Somali Youth.

Its funny, because inshallah someday I will become a teacher and after last night, my mother asked me "So......do you still want to be a teacher?"

My answer to that was HELL YES. The reason why I want to be a teacher is exactly this: learning and education, as cliche as it sounds, is the strongest weapon against many obstacles we face on a daily basis. The only difference is that, in my classroom, so help me ALLAH, I will be CONISISTENT which is something seriously lacking in our households.

Its like the parents dropped off their kids for babysitting service from 10am-6pm and all THREE of us had to handle over a hundred rude and abnoxious badasses.

All I can say is, thank GOD there was no media. I hated everything about this conference except for Professor Togane (of Montreal) who spoke with passion about being a Somali-Canadian. Having lived in North America for just over 40 years, the man knows alot on this topic.

You would think the kids would learn from the theme of night: Being a Somali-Canadian.

Hell nah, cuz they were busy tying their hijab's a little higher around their buns, making sure their gold belts were exactly the same shade of gold on their earrings and purse, or playing with their cell phones and talking back to adults when told to be quiet.

Where are the parents? ..................................Booking it away from the venue to get away from their dumbass kids for 8 hours.

Shame on them for not disciplining their children. Shame on every single kid that didn't benefit from this event.

Shame on our people for focusing on INSIGNIFICANT matters and overlooking the issues close to home.

Dang.

Next: My beef with condescending family members who talk down to you about religion. Get off your high horses people.