Where Were You?

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Ten years ago today, I was just days into the school year -- I was in the eighth grade.

I knew something was wrong right away because over and over again the classroom intercom would go off from the main office calling yet another student down. Slowly, but surely many of my fellow classmates were being picked up by their parents early from school. Not only was it early in the school day, but it was literally a few days into the school year.

School faculty/administration would not explain why, no matter how many students asked. To protect us? I don't know.

I don't remember from who, but I remember over hearing someone talking about an "emergency" in "downtown" "Manhattan" involving the "World Trade Center".

I remember lividly -- lumps formed in my throat and tears started forming in my eyes as I quickly went up to my teacher and told my teacher I needed to go down to the main office and call home. I needed to make sure my dad was okay.

He too, like MANY others used the train to get to work in Manhattan every day. His stop was the station in the lower level of the World Trade Center.

I, too, was picked up early from school. On the drive home, I could see the smoke even in Central New Jersey looming in the sky.

In a time before cell phones were so common that even elementary school-ers carry it around (like now), not many people had the luxury of having one. It just wasn't deemed to be a necessity as it is now. That meant getting in contact with your family and friends that day was a challenge in itself.

My dad, luckily, got in contact with my mom quickly and let her know he was fine. He had just gotten off the train and left the building and he "heard the noise", but didn't see as the first tower was hit.

It took him hours to get home that day because the city was literally shut down, but all that mattered was that he was fine.

Blessed? You bet. Grateful? More than I could ever explain.

In the hours and days ahead, glued to the TV and questioning "WHY?", I would learn how massive that day was... how many innocent lives were unjustly taken away that day.

As a young Muslim girl who had just started wearing the hijab just a few days prior (on the first day of school), I had no idea how the community would react hearing about all the backlash against Muslims and hate crimes in the days ahead. Fortunately, we live in a very diverse community, and I didn't have any problems.

Even so, being a Muslim has been a double edge-sword at times. It's just so easy to lump a whole group and pin the "blame" on them. But do we blame all Germans for the Holocaust? No. You know why? Because we know it's not true. An individual's action or a group of individual's actions can't be attributed to a whole group of people.

It's taken me ten years to write down my "Where were you when it happened" story, but you know...  it's not something I'd ever forget.

It's a day of reflection and counting your blessings. It's a day to remember all of the innocent lives lost that day. It's a day that we lost the feeling of comfort and peace. It's a day that changed how we lived forever.

Oh what I'd do to go back to the mindset of September 10, 2001. Being so young at the time, I honestly don't remember the care-free life before.

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Domestic Violence Transcends All Racial Boundaries

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Domestic violence transcends all racial boundaries.

It's proven time and again.

I haven't been able to get the unfortunate news out of my mind all week. A fellow Pakistani female murdered. At the hands of her husband. Right here in New Jersey!

Not just because I, too, was born in Pakistan. Or that I am a female. But as a human.

Nazish Noorani, a young mom of two small children, was killed after her husband meticulously planned her murder with another woman.

There are so many disgusting aspects of this story --

• the husband has been living a life of a lie (lying about his educational history, for example, while carrying on numerous affairs)
• to murder a woman in front of her child
• to meticulously PLAN this murder... down to the expected police response time.
• to make up a story and try to blame it as a hate crime.

It's absolutely heart-wrenching.

According to Futures Without Violence, on average more than three women a day are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in the United States. Yet, according to National Coalition Againts Domestic Violence, domestic violence is one of the most chronically under-reported crimes. Most cases aren't ever reported to the police!

WHEN, as a society, are we going to stand up for the matters that matter? HOW does someone decide to take away someone else's life? WHO gives them such a right?

How many domestic violence cases is it going for us to say enough is enough?  Too many, in my opinion.

Soon enough, the media attention on this case will diminish. But these young children, like many others, will still be left motherless.

If you see something, say something! You could be saving a life!

Friends and family of Nazish have set up a memorial fund for her two children, and if you are interested you can click here.


P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Drive Thrus'

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A modern convenience? or a traditional setback?

Let me start off by noting that I'm not talking all drive thru meals. Of course there are circumstances where you are just getting a quick meal/drink on the go. Or its easier to go through the drive thru lane instead of getting all of the kids out of the car just to put them back in. I get that. I'm not even talking about that!

What I am talking about is everyone being so engrossed in the everyday things in life that people don't even slow down to eat together anymore.

Instead I've seen and heard of so many scenarios where parents are grabbing quick meals for their family and dropping it off to each kid wherever they are.

Wasn't that the one thing you could always count on? Sitting around the dinner table eating (whether it was home cooked or take out) and catching up on the day's worth of events?

At least for me, it has always been the one part in the day where it seems everyone stops whatever was consuming their time to eat together... because before you know it, everyone is much older and has a million things pulling at them for attention (school work, work-related stuff, or whatever it may be).

Isn't it time we all slow down a little? If not for own health's sake, at least for the sake of maintaining some family time values?

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Facebook: Cartoon Default Photo

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If you are actively using Facebook, by now you have certainly seen some (if not many) of your friends change their default pictures to an image of a cartoon.

If it wasn't explained why, and you were curious - I'm sure you inquired and found out. But a lot of people still don't understand why -- which is one of the reasons I question it in the first place.

The explanation attached to the profile picture change is something to the likes of "Change your picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? To not see a human face on Facebook until Monday, December 6th. Join the fight against child abuse & copy & paste to your status to invite your friends to do the same."

In the early stages of all of this happening, I would get annoyed each time I saw it -- but not really think too much about it. But when I saw my brother Faraz post "If you know a child is being abused, please call 1-800-4-A-CHILD instead of just changing your profile picture to a cartoon" I immediately smiled and thought THIS is something I could go along with and promote. Instead of belittling what is a serious problem in the United States and across the globe, this was good information that should be passed along.

My number one question or problem with the cartoon scenario is: does the problem or at least the severity of the problem that is child abuse suddenly disappear after December 6th?

I'm sure many of the people who changed their Facebook profile photo thought that by doing so, they were promoting a good cause... but most didn't even bother explaining the reason they were changing their photo in the first place. Instead of passively participating, we should all take an active stance.

Over the last twelve hours or so, I'm pleased to see several of my Facebook "friends" change their statuses to what my brother wrote and I urge you to do the same.

This whole thing reminded me of a little while back when females posted on their Facebook statuses where they "liked it" in order to promote breast cancer. It was supposed to imply where they liked to leave their purses, but it became so racy and provocative and I don't think it raised any awareness at all. Breast Cancer is the number one cause of death for females, and to undermine its severity just baffles me each time.

What cause will be next?

Instead, why not provide people with information? Or provide links to where people can donate to for further research and prevention. Wouldn't it be amazing if both of these problems became a thing of the past?

There are many pros and cons to social media. You can use them to promote great causes like child abuse and cancer amongst many others, but there is a way to do it. The growing trend unfortunately is that social media just desensitizes us more and more.

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

My Thoughts on the Rutgers Tragedy

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As a society, when are we going to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH against bullying?

I would hope that if Rutgers ever received so much attention, it would be for a positive thing. As a very recent alumni of Rutgers it was quite dissappointing that they, instead, made headlines locally and nationally because one of the freshmen committed suicide as a direct result of cyber bullying.

Our generation, growing up, has seen so many technological advances - and like with most things - each comes with its positives negatives. At eighteen years of age and as a college freshmen, however, you are no longer children and are deemed responsible for your actions - and those responsible MUST be held responsible for their actions. I've read so many comments on articles in this case that defend those responsible and say 'it was just a joke'. How can bullying ever be just a joke? The simple answer is, it can't!

When are we as a society going to start accepting each person for who they are and leave gender, orientation, ethnicities, race, and disabilities amongst other things as barriers behind? It seems every time we take one step forward as a nation, we also take two steps right back - leading us further behind from where we even started.

I'm not naive - I don't think it's know it's not going to happen over night, but it's something we need to work on individually to bring that change on a collective level.

My condolences go out to the family and friends of the deceased. Such a young life, with a promising future, cut so short.

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Options

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Apparently nowadays, everyone's favorite question to ask me is: "so what are you doing nowadays?" or "so what are you going to do now?" when they learn that I'm not going for the whole law school route (at least for now).

As simple as that question is, it is driving me absolutely INSANE (that's the nice way to put it).

Um, if I knew, I would tell you.

You know how they always tell you to have a back up plan? Yeah, well I didn't.
  
Since I always thought/assumed I'd be going to graduate school (law school) right after I finished my undergraduate years at Rutgers, I didn't even bother to get a jump-start in worrying about finding a job in this horrible job market... because trust me... it's beyond horrible. It seems like all I do these days is search for jobs online nowadays and its getting tiring fast.

So lesson learned people - KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN!!! I can't stress that enough. Know what you want, that is for sure, but have a back up plan.

Don't just assume you'll deal with it when the time comes.

Don't just assume things will work out the way you want. Hopefully it will, but you just never know.

Just last night (when I was wide awake until 4:30 A.M.) I was thinking that this coming fall will be the first time in eighteen years that I won't be going back to school. Usually my schedule has always been so hectic with a full load of classes and work along with other commitments, that I can't even begin to tell you how weird this all is. As crazy and hectic as it always got, when I think of it, that's how I like it - I HATE just sitting  around at home and having so much free time... I'm just not used it!

Keep your options open... can't stress that enough.

Tag, You are It.

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As I was leaving from the last day of class of "Current, Moral, and Social Issues" earlier today, (which is a class I was quite interested in taking but turned out to be quite disappointing), the professor said something profound.

He ended the class talking about how important the issues we discussed in this class were and that the debate and the conversation on such topics should never end and then said: "this is the most important game of tag you will ever play... and YOU are it."

While I didn't enjoy the class altogether, the quote did make me smile and has had me thinking of its validity. There are so many issues we are each passionate about, but how many of us actually speak up for them?


 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Why I Like Twitter

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When I originally joined twitter, I played around with it for a few hours and then gave up because quite simply - it looked too complicated and I didn't get it.


Months later, I was convinced to give it a second try. And I'm glad I was intrigued to do so because now is it probably one of my primary sources to get the news (I talked about this here). This was just around the time when it seemed as if all the journalist and broadcast news organizations were creating twitter accounts as another way to stream the news. At this point, it's been about a year since twitter became really popular amongst journalists and news reporters and other public figures.


What I love about twitter is that I can follow whatever I am interested about from my laptop or my phone ... or anywhere else where I'll have access to twitter. Say I'm sitting in class or in the student center in between classes and can't watch the news coverage of something I really want to be watching. Chances are someone many people are tweeting quotes or paraphrasing the content of whatever is currently happening that I am missing.


For example when the whole 'balloon-boy' fiasco was happening, I was sitting in a class done the assignment I was supposed to be doing and suddenly I started getting tweets about the whole mess from the start and through all of its twists and turns.


Twitter has not only been great for news - sensational, real or otherwise, but it's great for having interactive discussion with others who care about what you care about. If you agree, great... if you don't - I think it's even better.


As I was watching Obama's SOTU address, I was following the trending topic and getting to read other people's thoughts live and have a conversation about something I care about with other people who care about the same thing. I don't know about you, but I feel like in my social group, very few people care about the same things as I do. It puts new media to a whole new level.


Not only that, nowadays, I probably access most of the articles I ready daily off of twitter from what others share in their tweets or what organizations like magazines tweet. Instead of going to different websites to find articles that are of interest to me or anything like that, they are all brought to me in one central location.   


As 2009 drew to an end, it was even cool to look through "Top Twitter Trends of 2009" which summarized what we as a collective groups of people from across the world found most important and worthy of attention across a variety of categories. 


It always amazes me when people compare twitter to facebook because they two could not be any more different and have two completely different purposes.


Do you use twitter? What do you like most about it? Or what do you use it most for? If you don't use it - is there any particular reason or you just don't see a need for it?



P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

LSATs, Round Two

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The LSAC really needs to get its act together - at least on the LSAT days.

When I took the LSATs last September the only part I remember being annoyed about was the fact that when I got to my testing location, I had to go the second floor of the basement of one building to find out where I was supposed to take the exam in a completely different building.

Why they couldn't post that list on the main door of the building or the MANY surrounding windows, you ask? Beats me. But when you find out - let me know.

I took the exam for a second time today. It was originally scheduled for February 6th, but it got cancelled because of snow (and ironically we didn't get the big snow storm till days later).

Anyhow, back to this morning:

I left early and got there with some time to spare (in case they did the whole 'go-down-two-floors-of-this-building-to-find-out-what-room-you-are-taking-the-exam-in-a-completely-different-building' again). This time, fortunately, they were smart enough to post the list on a window close to the doors. I still had to go to a different building, but it was a step in the right direction. Considering they do this at least four times a year EVERY year, you would think (and hope) that they would have the simple stuff like this pretty set.

So we are finally settling down (and this proctor didn't make us sit alphabetically or in any organized fashion) in the room and this one girl points out that not everyone has an admission ticket (since the exam was cancelled originally, those who hadn't printed it at the point no longer could) and the email we all received said we would get an empty one at the testing center if we needed one.

I wish there was a way to describe the look on the proctor's face because it was priceless. She looked at the girl like she was a)nuts and b)totally making this up. A couple of other people who were in a similar situation spoke up and the main proctor finally sent the other proctor to find out what she was supposed to do because she didn't have any empty admission tickets.

The second proctor finally comes back with some empty admission tickets. Way to being organized! You would think (and hope) that the proctor of the exam had simple information like this. We are already stressed out as it is, we don't need unnecessary stress added on top it.

Then the main proctor starts walking around the room taking attendance and finger-printing us for the admission ticket as a part of the process (she only made us do it once even though last time we had to do it in two boxes just like the instructions said) and when she gets to me - I ask her shouldn't I be signing the form now in front of you? To which she responds "oh, yeah". Like really?

Other things that annoyed me:  

• The second proctor continuously coming in and out of the room. Like seriously she would not stay in the same place and the doors creaking every time was driving everyone crazy.
• The proctor didn't put the timing on the boards for any of the section so it was hard to keep track of how much time we had left.
• The proctor next door was talking loud enough so that we could hear her clearly and I was on the completely opposite side of the room.
• The five minute warnings before the time allocated for each section was to be over turning in to a 'oh you have a little less than four minutes left' twice.

Oh and how can I forget this: when my original exam was cancelled I received an email from the LSAC telling me that within a week I would get another email with my new testing date. Exactly a week later, I got an email telling me my test would be on one of two dates (both Saturdays). And that I would get ANOTHER email telling me which of those two dates by the Wednesday BEFORE my test date. 

Seriously? Are they purposefully trying to annoy us and/or stress us out more than we already are?

I'm sure there were other small things too, but this is all I can think of right now.

23 days until scores come out.

P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Obama's State of the Union Address

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So as I was watching Obama's first State of the Union Address (SOTU) as president earlier, education was high on my list of things to note. As a college student right now who is planning on pursuing higher education (via law school), it is probably one of the two most important issues (healthcare being the other one) that I am concerned with... and I've mentioned that on this blog time and time again (like here and  here for example).

Even with grants and whatnot, I am still going to be in TREMENDOUS debt... and that's just from the past four years worth of education. For the past four years, tuition has increased EVERY year and it has definitely added up. I don't even want to think about what I'll owe after law school.

One of the reasons I've been contemplating on whether I should go to law school right after undergraduate or work for a few years first is because of this debt! This is especially because of the state of the economy nowadays... it's not like before where if I had a pretty decent education, I would most likely find a decent job (barring any unforeseen circumstances).

Nowadays, I know so many people who have been laid off in the last year or so that it is ridiculous. To think of the competition of people from an older generation looking for jobs and the young people vying for the same jobs is pretty scary. All I know is I'm not too comfortable with the idea of being in such a huge debt and being uncertain of a plan to pay it back.

Quoting a part of what Obama said tonight about the education aspect:

'To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer-subsidies that go to banks for student loans. Instead, let’s take that money and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increase Pell Grants. And let’s tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only ten percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after twenty years – and forgiven after ten years if they choose a career in public service. Because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college. And it’s time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs' 

My thoughts on this:

1. The tax credit and increase in pell grants will go a long way and help many families.
2. Students being only required to pay 10% of their income on student loans and their debts being forgiven after 20 years will take a HUGE burden off of a lot of people! This one is a biggie in my opinion.
3. Calling for colleges/universities to cut their own costs. I could not agree more! One of the annoying things at Rutgers is that as a part of our tuition, we pay some money to use the printing services at the libraries and computer labs. We are given about $30-32 dollars (i think) worth to use in printing twice a year (one for the fall and winter semesters and another one for the spring and summer semesters). However, we are not given an option on whether we want to do this or not! I, next to never, use the printing services (because I don't usually have the time in between in classes and whatnot to use it  up). And we don't get the amount we don't use back either, so I am being gypped of about 60 dollars each year for this. And this is just one of those ridiculous fees we pay... so they all add up!

Now by no means am I naive. So in no way am I expecting a hundred percent of what was said tonight to happen in reality. However, I want SOMETHING done! As Obama said today: "In the United States of America, no one should go broke because they decided to go to college".

Here are the other important highlights from his address (VERY briefly):

• Obama called for a crack down on the violations nationwide of the equal pay acts so that men and women get equal pay for an equal day's work. As a women, of course, I find this to VERY important. It's so sad that even now women are still fighting for just basic things!!
• A call for doubling the child care tax credit; expanding tax credit for families with children.
• Healthcare! discussed very briefly though.
• The state of the economy and the ENORMOUS deficit the country faces.
• Obama said he plans to work with Congress to repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country in the armed services. No matter what your religious and/or political views are on gays and lesbians, they are people and they have rights.  

What were your thoughts on his speech and some of the issues in general?



P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Games - the Old Fashioned Way

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I don't know about you, but i LOVE playing old board games with family and friends. Tonight, my little cousin Imran stayed over after a really long time and we (my brothers, Imran, and I) played a game of monopoly (that took over four hours!) the old fashioned way (after a few years) - and it got me thinking.

We used to play so many board games (like chess, checkers, chinese checkers, mastermind just to name a few) when we were little... and it reminded me of that time today. I wish we still played as much as we used to, but honestly no one does anymore. Like i was telling some of my family members some time ago, no one takes the time to play board games or actively play games outside and things like that anymore. Now, 'playing' a game means playing something on the computer or a gaming system like the Wii or X-box. By the way, i can pretty much guarantee my brothers will argue me on this.

Even the newest edition of monopoly now is computerized with a 'credit card' like system to take away the mathematical portion of the game. Don't get me wrong - it's a neat aspect, but part of the fun of the game was the old fashioned way to play it. Sure, the game runs much faster now... but that was half the fun.

I am still relatively young, but i can remember clearly that we used to go outside and play regularly after school and whatnot when we were younger. Nowadays, you don't see that too much. Of course there are changes with each generation, but don't you think some things should always remain the same?

Not only is playing actively outside or a board game with others healthy, but it is great for your social skills. People nowadays, especially little kids, lack basic social skills that are necessary to be able to communicate with others. I can't count the number of times I've noticed people (of all ages) not being to communicate with other people face to face.

Technology is great, by all means - I'm not arguing that. But sometimes, it inhibits people. Nowadays, people 'communicate' primarily though email, texting, or instant messaging (or just Facebook). While all of these have made communicating with people much easier, it should not mean that you are no longer able to talk to people face to face at all.

The next few times you are talking to people from various age groups, take note of it - you'll be surprised at how many people can't even make eye contact when they are speaking to people!

Thoughts: Registration, RU Football, LSATs

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It's so unbelievable, but i registered this past Monday (November 9th) for my last semester as an undergraduate at Rutgers University! I can't believe it! It doesn't feel like I have been here for so long (three and a half years at this point!) and now am just months away from graduating in May. While each individual semester has seemed to drag on forever, it has in general flew by pretty fast. It hasn't been the easiest few years by any means, but i can honestly say it has been worth it. The roller coaster ride with the combination of the stress, challenges, agony, and the feelings of accomplishments have been nothing short of interesting, to say the very least.

I can't believe how fast time is flying by! I've been meaning to write a blog post on my mom's hospital stay/surgery from the beginning of October (over a month ago!), and i just can't seem to get some free time together. Hopefully in the next few days i will since i finally finished my midterms, papers, and projects this past week. Besides a few papers and a project, I don't have much extra school work due until the final exams period which is about a month away.

I also got my LSATs score back near the end of October, and i didn't do nearly as well as i would have liked or as well as i thought i would have done with all the studying time i put it. Needless to say, i was (and still am) quite frustrated and flushed. For the first few weeks, i was pretty upset (quite an understatement). I'm going to retake the LSATs in February and see how i do. People have been telling me not to let it get to me, but after all the studying, how can i not let it to get to me? It's something i've been thinking about and aspiring towards since the eighth grade! I know if it's meant to be, it'll work out... and if it's not... that's alright too... but i CAN'T just not give it another try. i guess i'll re-evaluate once i get my scores back from the LSATs from February and see what i want to do. I've been in the law school frame of mind for so long, that the thought that it may not be for me is quite upsetting. I'll be off for about three weeks in between the fall and spring semester that starts mid January so i'll have to get some hard core studying done then to prepare for the February LSATs.

On a quite different note, this past Thursday i also went to another Rutgers Football game - RU vs USF. Unfortunately with everything going on, it  was only the second game i have been able to attend this season (i went to the RU vs. Howard really early in the season). I was hoping i would be able to attend more considering it's my last year as a RU student, but oh well. Hopefully, i'll at least be able to go to the last home game of the season against West Virginia. RU vs. USF was an amazing game, and i had a great time - so even if it is the last game i attend as the student, it was great. The final score was RU - 31 and USF - 0. I was hoping for a great game with a huge win, but i didn't think the ranked USF team would end up not scoring at all!