Actions speak louder than words

People always ask me what I say to people when they make racist or derogatory comments about Muslims or Iranians, and the truth is I don't really say anything. If I thought it would get the point across I would throw chairs and scream in their faces, but in all honesty no one listened to someone because they screamed in their face. You can't change people's opinions that way. Everyone grew up with certain beliefs and thoughts, and me telling them off can't reverse all of that. Some people are appalled I don't try and say something back at them, and to that I would say this: Don't lower yourself to their level by fighting back to them. You won't do a single thing. Lead by example. If you hate racism don't be a racist, and furthermore be open to other cultures and backgrounds and break the stereotypes. I guarantee you it will be a lot more effective.

19 going on 9

You know it never ceases to amaze me how I actually decrease in age when I come back to my house for a few days. This morning I was laying on my mom's bed whinning at my mom to make me pancakes. I did this for about 10 minutes before I realized I was acting like a 5 year old. It was really kind of disgusting, but at the same time did not feel like an innapropriate thing to do. I just felt like whinning to my mom. Maybe it's because when I'm at school I have to suck it up and be an adult, so when I come home I need to decompress and just revert back to the days when life was so easy. Speaking of which, my mom made lasagna for dinner...I should probably go test it to make sure it's alright.

Famli ashge-man hast

I love that my friends have become part of my family. I love that when my dad says, "Hey let's go out to dinner" my mom asks if I am going to invite so and so to come with, as if they are one of my sisters. Family is great, but what makes it even better is when they are willing to expand themselves. Who says blood makes you family? I say love makes you family :)

Music and Lyrics

I need music to listen to when I'm studying. I also like to be reminiscent. So therefore today I was listening to the Pocahontas Soundtrack and studying for Arabic (don't ask). As I was listening I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I remember what the plot is and all of that, but the lines are a lot more graphic than I remembered. Then I realized the last time I saw Pocahontas I was probably 8 years old, and I was more focused on making my hair sway in the wind like Pocahontas' than listening to the meaning of the songs. I mean the lyrics in the song "Savages" is insane! One line even has the British referring to the Native Americans as "dirty redskin devils" and "destroy their evil race until there's not a trace". And to think, I used to dance around to these songs, swishing my hair around to a song that is about how powerful and hurtful hate is. If you think about it, there are a lot of Disney movies that are the same way. In the Lion King, Scar sings about his plan to murder Mufasa, and again I remember dancing to this song with my sister, and then pushing her on the floor as soon as Scar sings, "you won't get a sniff without me!!!". How about when Ursula sings about how to make a man attracted to you in "Poor unfortunate souls". This is blowing my mind right now. I need to take a breather.

I've been putting this off...

I'm sitting at Memorial Library and my focus is finally starting to fade away. Really I just don't want to start studying for my Arabic midterm that's on Wednesday. Procrastination is such a funny thing. I keep putting off studying so I want have to do it. But why? If I don't study, I'll just sit and keep thinking about how I have to study, and then fail my Arabic test. If I study, I will feel better about myself and do well on the test. But yet I just sit here and not study. Does this make any sense? No. So why I do continue to procrastinate? Why do we procrastinate? What do I have to gain from this? Nothing really, because I feel bad for not studying, so I'm not even having fun instead of studying. What am I doing? I'd like to think I'm a somewhat logical person, so why do I do this to myself? I feel a little better because I am also illogical a lot of the time so I kind of have an excuse. But I know a lot of people who I feel are at least 95% logical and even they procrastinate like it's their job. They don't have an excuse. Well they do, but it's only 5% legit.
Hmm Maybe I'll be 95% today and try to do something. But I'm only 5% sure that will happen... :)

Saving the world....a domino effect

You know, almost everyone I know as told me at one point or another that they want to have an impact on the world, or save the world, or both! And that's great, but who's to say all of us aren't doing it now?
I walk down State St. everyday for one reason or another, but today was a particularly special day. As I was walking I was fumbling with my iPod and not watching where I was going and accidentally pumped into someone, causing him to drop the magazine he was holding in his hands. I felt so bad and apologized over and over again, as the ground was wet and now so was his magazine. As I gave the magazine back to him I realized it was a magazine published in Farsi about events in Afghanistan. I asked him if he was Afghani and he kind of didn't want to answer but then after a while just nodded his head. I literally jumped up and down and told him my dad was from Iran and that I was so excited to meet someone who speaks Farsi! He looked absolutely shocked. I kept going on and on rambling things in Farsi until after I while I realized he was still staring at me and I stopped. He then apologized and then told me that he had just come here from Afghanistan to escape and lead a better life in the states but ever since he's been here and told people where he was from people have been nothing but mean to him or scared of him because they hear "Afghanistan" and think terrorists. I couldn't believe it! I wanted to talk to him more but I was running late so I told him I felt really bad about his magazine and asked if I could pay for another one for him and put his hand up and said, "No no thank you my friend, you have done enough, I should be buying you a magazine but I owe you more than that. Thank you for lifting my spirits". And then we went our separate ways.
What is the reason for me telling you this? The world is huge, and for one person to save the world in one fell swoop is probably not going to happen. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done. Maybe that man I talked about before will now have a more optimistic view of America and go on to help someone else. And because of that, that person will help another, and so on. One person can't save the world, but one can start the process. Treat everyone with respect and kindness, because you may make a bigger impact on their world than you could ever know.

Conversation Nation

I'm sitting on the bus on my way to Madison after visiting my family for the weekend and I can't help but listen to everyone else's conversations. Conversation is such an intriguing thing. Every person has their own idea of what type of conversation is ideal, and which type is a no-go.

There’s small talk, where you go back and forth asking each other questions and receiving one word/short sentence answers. Mostly used amongst strangers or when you happen to run into someone in passing.

Then there’s the surface conversation, which is when people go back and forth talking about for instance, things that happened to them that day or that week. Or the "did you hear this happened?"...."I got a fish."....etc.

The Issue conversation, where you talk about a certain issue, (not necessarily a political one) but the entire conversation revolves around that subject

The Uninterested conversation, where someone says something, and then there's the awkward turn your head away from the person. Usually when one party does not want to be involved in a conversation with the other, or when neither can think of anything to say and don't really care.

And then there's the In-depth wide eyed conversation, which is the best to watch because both people are really involved and passionate about the conversation. This could be two people truly interested in the subject...or as someone on our floor pointed out, could also be a girl who is truly interested in the topic, and a boy pretending to be interested in it to get in her pants later.

The Age of Thought

My sister and her friends always want to talk to me about stuff. I don't know why because I am three years older than them but whatever. So we are all sitting in the living room and I would ask "How's school?", "What are you learning?"...which now that I am thinking about it, those were the exact questions adults would always ask me and I would wonder why adults' questions were so stupid. Damn. Anyways, no matter what, the subject would ALWAYS turn back to boys, and who they are going to go with the prom. No matter what! I even once mentioned that I wanted some OJ and my sister delves into this story about how so and so offered her some juice today and "omg he's so cute I was like, omg seriously?!". I was trying to plot my escape the whole time but I couldn't leave because they kept including me in the conversation.
I know I was the exact same way when I was in high school, and I remember thinking how great of a conversation it was if the boy I liked came up in it, and now I can't stand it. Don't get me wrong, I love playing "Who would you date?" as much as the next girl, but I am now able to not talk about boys every second.
Now I talk about saving the world, politics, world events, and standing up to the man. And my parents look at me like I look at my sister. They tell me to pull my head out of the clouds
and study more.
When I would listen to my sister talk, I would think, Does this really interest you that much?? It means nothing in the span of life! But now I'm realizing that my parents hear what I say and probably think the same thing.
So to this I would say that your thoughts are your thoughts, they're part of who you are. Hold on to them even though someone else may think they are dumb and pointless. And who knows, one day you may just meet Prince Charming and save the world together. :)