#fast-a-thon

Muslims celebrated Ramadan this year between March 10 and April 9. According to the Islamic Networks Group, “In Ramadan, Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Qur’an and fast from food and drink during the sunlit hours as a means of drawing closer to God and cultivating self-control, gratitude, and compassion for those less fortunate.” The Catalyst has covered Ramadan in previous years, and…

1) My first Islamic fast: Sometimes I take the free shuttle from my current school to hang out at Catholic school jeah

and one day there, the MSA students asked if I wanted to pledge to do Fast-A-Thon during Hunger Week. So I did!

It was my first time having no food or water from sunrise to sunset. We broke the fast with dates (BEST-TASTING DATE OF MY LIFE?!) and had dinner together and

OMG SO MANY MUSLIM STUDENTS AT CATHOLIC SKOOL LIKE 150+ AND THEY ARE ALL SO NICE!!

Best-tasting Sprite of my life too!!

I've never known what it's like to be truly hungry or thirsty, so this was a really good experience for me, and I will try to fast more in the future to keep learning self-discipline, compassion, and clarity.

2) banana litora IRL: puramlitora came on a business trip to Chicago!! So I took the train downtown to meet her, and as always it's such a surreal experience to meet friends from tumblr.

She was so funny and talkative and bubbly and omg guise the way she gets excited about things, she was geeking out seeing all of the buildings and exclaiming that everything was beautiful and "WOW!" and I just thought that was adorable lol and because she was in total awe for all 6 hours, Chicago was suddenly new to me too, even though I'd been there a lot since I was little.

I SAW THE WORLD WITH NEW EYES

AND WE WENT TO A VEGAN RESTAURANT WHERE THEY MADE MAGICAL FOOD AND ALSO WE RODE A BOAT ON THE CHICAGO RIVER so I will never forget and also here is our pic together!!!

3) Graduate school: bb Wildcat lyfe has been kind of stressful and strange

Though there are a lot of nice and helpful people, I've found that there's a culture of pride that comes from being the first learning sciences program in the country, which means that there are also a lot of academic hipsters

There's a "NO LECTURES ALLOWED!" policy which means we are always doing group work and group projects. Meanwhile the professors take a "hands-off approach" and try not to give us any direct answers because to them, being straightforward means leaving no room for nuance and preventing us from developing a deep understanding of the subject matter

The profs and TAs get really happy when we're struggling and say things like "You're just going through the hard work of learning something new!" when really we are just confused by how vague they are

After all we've read about learning & teaching I feel like the program doesn't practice what it preaches. It's like a Pretentious Party every day and on days like today I feel discouraged by TAs and peers talking down to me and I just want 2 punch them

In general I'm not impressed by people who talk down to other people, liek put ur ego away?!?

In the end I know that I just have to Do My Kanye Best (mormonstrous), maintain a positive mentality and talk to everybody anyway and learn as much as possible and an hour ago I put rice in the rice cooker so nobody can stop me now!!

Also bought 6 pints of ice cream because they were on sale and here is a pic of bb wolf Ignatius modeling with them:

JEAH!!!!!!

Love always,

Check out this amazing Breaking Bad parody the Fast-A-Thon kids did! Can't wait for tomorrow's event!

Here's my call:

I'm telling you all,

Take some time

Please don't stall.

Tweet and write

And streak your hair

Post a status

To show you care

Water is life

I've heard someone say

So we're building a well

I remember my first Fast-A-Thon like it was yesterday, and I really wish it actually was yesterday, because then I would still be a freshman without a care in the world and the future in the palm of my hand. However, this is not so and all I can do is reminisce and look forward to another Fast-A-Thon. 

Back in my day, people talked about this Fast-A-Thon business like it was the most amazing event of the year, but nobody discussed the deets. So, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into when the infamous Ghaddafi, then known as Ahmad Raza told me I should become a volunteer. I decided I could use a few good deeds so I signed my night away and bought a t-shirt, to boot. 

So, just close your eyes and imagine. Okay, well, don’t really close your eyes because then you won’t be able to read this, but try and imagine baby freshman Anum A. (they called me Anum A. because there was another Anum at the IC at the time) walking into the big, bad, empty Kimmel E+L not knowing where to go or what to do. I can’t imagine it either, to be honest, but we’ll pretend for the story’s sake. So I walked into Kimmel and I didn’t know who to talk to or what to say, but finally someone told me to go put my stuff in the back, which is what I did. Then I remember praying somewhere and meeting Zara Ali, and we talked and found out we had the same major...kinda. But everything after that became a blur. I remember creating some sort of assembly line and people were impressed because I knew what I was doing. We made a lot of plates out of famous Afghan food and now I am reading over this story and it’s getting a little boring, not gonna lie. So, long story short (one of my favorite phrases) it was a night of labor and a night to remember. 

There were a bunch of people, most of them strangers to me, sitting in a big room learning about the devastating effects of Pakistan’s floods. Even though my family is from Pakistan, I couldn’t connect to the cause, then Khalid Latif went up to the mic and all that changed. Money basically fell out of the sky after that, but it wasn’t because Khalid guilted me into donating. Something that Khalid said that night in that khutbah voice of his finally clicked. 

If I made more money, I would give it all away in a heartbeat for any cause that would be able to benefit someone else more than it would benefit me. Thank God, we have water to drink and food in our bellies (even if you are reading this and you’re hungry, at least food is accessible to you) because there are people out there who aren’t as lucky. The circumstances in which we are born into shouldn’t be the determining factors of our survival and yet, they are. 

Life isn’t fair, I’ve heard. But, that doesn’t mean we should be selfish. It’s easy to get trapped in a bubble, here in the big city where we are in a perpetual rush. Take some time out of your busy schedule on Friday, September 20th and join me in helping some people out by eating and having fun. Maybe you can be inspired by Khalid Latif, at the least, you can make some awesome friends and take some epic photos, maybe even help build a well. See you there!

Sincerely,