The New Generation

The Arab man is independent. The Arab man cannot be controlled. The Arab man thinks with his mind. The Arab man cannot be brain-washed, he cannot be oppressed, and he cannot be told what to do.

Not so long ago, the world thought that it was easy to manipulate the mind of Arabs. That they were stupid and easy to fool.

But, I believe it’s safe to say that this is not the case anymore. The recent revolutions in the Middle East have proved to the world that we have had enough. We will no longer stand for oppression, suppression, occupation. We will no longer tolerate living in conditions that do not please us. We will no longer live under a rule that does not appeal to us, and we will no longer approve of dictators that do not take the living conditions of their people into consideration.

The Arab people have finally broken free.

And what has this done to the faith and the belief of the Arab people? We now know that power is in our hands. We are now aware of our ability to break free, and we know that if we want to change the world we must find it in ourselves. So much has changed since the beginning of 2011. So much will continue to change. Why?

Because a new generation has been born. A generation that looks death in the eye and does not fear it. A generation so intelligent, so incredibly driven, so willing to take control of their own fate, that they will not rest until they see the world in the way they want to see it.

A generation that so passionately wants to live, that they fear not death, because they have been brought up with the belief that to die a thousand times is better than to live for a thousand years with no pride and no freedom.

Here, as history is being made, a generation has been born that will not rest until they have tasted from the sweet cup of independence, until their potentials are no longer ignored, until their voices are no longer silenced.

A generation that will not rest, until Palestine is free.

I thought I was heartbroken

You see, it made sense. I was heartbroken, I must be. I thought I was heartbroken- for such a long time, I really believed I was heartbroken… Until it hit me, my heart can’t break unless I let it be broken. No one can throw my heart around unless I hand it to them in the first place, and honey- you think you can break my heart? No think again. My heart is mine to own and no one can break it unless I say they can. My heart is my own, and no matter what, you don’t matter enough to break this precious, precious thing.

 

I thought their words hurt me. I thought their words affected me, until I realized- they only affect me when I let them. I realized I can either listen to their words and let them tell me what I am- which would make me much stupider than I wanted to believe I am- or I can let their words roll off me as if they never happened… never existed, never were.

 

I thought I was a failure. Until I realized that I can only be a failure as long as I accepted myself to be such. But as long as I rise every time it doesn’t go right, as long as I realize life comes with just as many ups as downs, and as long as I consider each time I fall a lesson learned, so I know where exactly I shouldn’t step if I want to avoid falling again- then I can never, ever be a failure. I realized that my world is what I make it and I am only as successful as I believe myself to be.

 

I am only the person I allow myself to be.

Better

I am so much better, so I shall rise above.

Eight Things Life Taught Me

1) If you don’t want people to know something, DON’T TELL ANYONE! I mean, seriously?, it’s about time you know that the tactic of “fine, I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone,” REALLY doesn’t work. There are very, very few trustworthy people, but the truth is, even if you THINK you know who’s trustworthy and who is not… you’re trusting a HUMAN and humans make mistakes. If you don’t want to take the risk that your friend slips up, talks in anger, or betrays your trust, keep it to yourself.

2) Moving on isn’t … moving on. I realized that everyone, everyone will pretend to know what they’re talking about when they give advice and will tell you to “move on”. So I started asking people… “How? How do you move on?” And guess what I discovered? No one knows the freaking answer. So a) when people tell you to move on ask them to take their advice and shove it … never mind. Just tell them to please be quiet. and b) I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you never move on. You move away and forward. Does it make a difference? Yeah, it makes all the difference in the world. See, moving on isn’t a clearly defined term. What does to move on mean? Does it mean things don’t hurt anymore? Does it mean you don’t care anymore? … What the heck does it mean?! No one’s ever clearly defined it. Hence, why I hate this term so much. Let me tell you something about pain and “moving on” from it. If something hurt once, it will always hurt a part of us. If something mattered once, it will always matter to a part of us. Always. You carry your pains and your experiences as part of you as you go through life. You carry them within you. Yet, you keep moving forward through life. So people shouldn’t tell you to move on with your pain, they should tell you to move forward with your life.

3) Pain happens. What are you going to do about it? I really don’t like it when people say that they don’t like going through a hard time, or complain about it like they’re born with the right to always have it easy. No, you’re not. You have to have it as hard as the next person. No body LIKES to be hurt and no body likes for things to be difficult, but only you can shape the outcome of your pain and your hardships. One thing I realized is that being happy and for things to be good and perfect… well that’s amazing. Theoretically, that’s perfect. But I want you to honestly look at the moments that defined you in your life; the moments that shook you to your core, that made you question your values- were they ever the happy moments in your life? The lessons we learn, the moments that cause us to define who we are- are we honest? are we loyal? are we kind? are we judgmental?- are never the happy preppy moments. Pain pushes your limits, explodes your boundaries, tests your patience… it pushes you to be better, it pushes you to work harder and to never settle for anything than the best. Life taught me to embrace my pain, to look for the positive outcomes of it, and to allow it to push me way out of my comfort zone.

4) Strength isn’t about forgetting your pain, it’s about moving forward despite it. Another thing I hate that people say is “Forget about it.” I beg your pardon? FORGET about it? Does it look like I LIKE to wallow in my pain and stay upset (by the way, don’t wallow in your pain. Really, don’t). To many people, memories… and pain… is not something that they can just FORGET. Their brains aren’t pieces of hardware that can easily be formatted. So, don’t think that strength is the girl who forgot, don’t think that strength is the boy who (as THEY put it) can ‘move on.’ Strength is the person who wakes up every morning with a pain in their chest, but gets up, faces everyone- every day- and even when every step they take is a battle, is a challenge… they do it. Strength is never the person who can easily forget, strength is the person that can look pain in the face and take a step closer, anyway.

5) If you understand someone’s pain, you will have a hard time not understanding their anger. I am a firm believer that behind anger there is always a little bit of pain. If you understand why a person is hurting, take it from me, it will be so hard to be angry at their anger. I agree that a person’s hurt and pain does not give them the right to mistreat people. It does not give them the right to do people wrong. But when you open your heart and try to understand their pain, you will think to yourself, “I wonder what -I- would have done if I were hurt that bad.” There are always these quotes about not judging people unless you’ve been in their shoes. “Don’t judge a man unless you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.” The truth is, when we stop and think about another person’s situation- and REALLY try to be perceptive- we find that we’ve been in a very similar situation ourselves. Keep an open mind, and an open heart.

6) Do not be insensitive to people’s pain. Yes, everyone’s got their own problems. Yes, everyone’s got their fair share of things to worry about without worrying about other people’s pain and problems. I’m not saying to try and solve everyone’s problems. I’m saying that when you see someone in pain, when your actions are putting people in pain, there’s no harm in going out of your way to try and stop hurting them. Because we’re all human, and no body lives alone in this world. And what goes around comes around. When the day comes and you need other people to be sensitive to your pain, and take it into consideration, you don’t want fate to slap you in the face because you were once insensitive to the pain of someone else. Every person has their pain, and really, nothing is worse than pain. If you cannot be sensitive to people’s pain, at least don’t invoke it.

7) Have faith. Life’s too hard to go through alone. “Allah burdens not a person beyond his scope.” AlBaqara; 286. To believe that there is a God Who will help you through everything, Who will Listen whenever you need to let it out, and Who is the only One able to do anything about your problems is a huge help in life. To believe that Allah (swt) does not burden you with what you cannot take is also a huge help. It’s like being given a test and being told that you have the full capacity to pass the test. That your chances of passing it are very high. The same goes… Allah (swt) is telling us that He does not burden us with what we cannot take. So it’s like guaranteed that you’ll come out of the other side if you hold on long enough. You’re not given something that you don’t have the capability of dealing with. You’re given something in which the Creator has the knowledge that you can “pass”. Believe in Him and everything in life becomes so much easier.

8) Let your actions define you, not the actions of other people. My grandmother always told me not to say I’m sorry to anyone. She didn’t mean that if I made mistakes, I should not apologize. She meant I shouldn’t put myself in the position of having to apologize to people. I know sometimes people react when people treat them in a certain way, and they say very harsh things. Fine, if you believe that this is how people will respect you, everyone has their own belief. But I believe, and life has taught me, that being the bigger person doesn’t necessarily mean who can scream louder or who can make sure that no one messes with them. The bigger person is the person who can look at the person who has done them wrong and say “You know what, I would have this fight, but man- it’s not worth my time.” It’s not necessarily the person who has everyone terrorized that they don’t dare say two words to them but rather the person who gives people nothing to talk about. It’s true that mediocre minds will always find something to discuss, but at least they will never say I did someone wrong. The bigger person is the person who is strong enough to take “their right” back from someone, but chooses not to in circumstances that aren’t worth the time or energy. They are the people who let their minds control their tongues, and not their emotions.

Everything that is Beautiful

The sun as it goes down,
Bidding the Earth farewell-
The lovely colors it leaves behind
The orange perfection of the sky
Meeting with the horizon-
A hug, and a kiss… Two for today

The sun and it rays,
the beautiful  colors of it’s raise
The murmur of people’s soft praise
Remind me of you

The rain drop against my window
The smell of morning dew
The beat of the raindrops
The rhyme they make with my heart
The gray clouds as they cry
The breath of air afterwards

The beauty and perfection of stillness

the beauty and perfection that reminds me

of you.

The ocean as it screams,
The ocean’s voice in my ears
The  ocean, so calm so beautiful
The ocean, I lose myself
With it’s beauty…
Reminds me of you.

When I see you, I am shocked
For the ocean, and the slow sunrise
and even the sun as it set…
The rain, and the rainbows,
The smell of the clear air
The dance of the white clouds
As they kiss the perfect blue sky,
Do not compare to you.

Take Them

I can hear the doctor say-

but his voice, is ever so low,

It sounds like he’s whispering

when he’s shouting…

Oh, something is awfully wrong.

He talks to my parents,

I know that because it must be true

Because my mother’s wails reach me

Like tiny sobs when he says

“She lost her eyes in the accident,
I’m sorry, she won’t be able to see…”

I lost my eyes so long ago-

I lost them the last time I saw his eyes…

Seeing lost meaning years before,

When I didn’t have his face to see…

So, really, it’s fine you took my eyes away,

his image is now a part of me.

“…she lost most of her hearing, too..”

but what has my hearing mattered

since his voice I no longer heard

When it no longer lulled me to sleep

or called me his sweetheart,

so take my hearing away, it’s fine

I haven’t needed it since he said goodbye

“…her fingers were crushed, they won’t make it…”

My fingers were crushed, when he crushed my heart

I haven’t felt them since, so really, it’s fine.

Without his hand in mine, my fingers have lost sense to time…

They’ve become unfeeling, insensitive to touch

Without his hand in mine…

my fingers… don’t make sense.

“…there’s damage to her frontal lobe,
we might have to operate…”

Fine.

“… she might lose her long term memory…”

No! My tears begged as they burned down my cheeks,

Not my memories, not these!

It’s all I’ve got left of him… Please, please.

“…at least she’ll be alive…”

But don’t you see?

That I’ve been dead since he’s been gone…

that without him, there’s no me?

 

Blame me

They blame me cuz
I still love you
They blame me cuz
after you’ve hurt me
I can’t get enough of you

They blame me cuz
they think I’ve got no pride
They blame me cuz…
They don’t know

They don’t know the way
your eyes dance when you look at me
They don’t know the way
your soul smiles when you see me

They don’t know the way
bursts of sunlight break
when you’re with me …
Or the way you make me feel…

They don’t know that your eyes
are my drug and that
your laughter is..
music to my ears.

They don’t see your beauty
or how you take care of me
They only judge because they want to
But me, I know how I feel.