First of Last

WEDNESDAY was my first day of my last quarter as an undergraduate student.

As always, the campus was full of over excited freshman who are hoping for their idealized view of the college life to play out. Some will have an experience very similar to what they imagine and others might be surprised.

Fortunate the college experience was how I’d expected with a few good and bad surprises. But am grateful for everything because I ended up learning a lot through the process (not just the academic lessons).  It is a wonderful journey. I grew – not only in years- but in wisdom and experience.

One thing that turned out to be absolutely true – the experiences outside the class are as important to the journey of college as taking classes and gaining knowledge through academics.

I traveled 6 states on an amazing road-trip that involved a lot of laughter, jokes, bad food, good food, amazing scenery, national parks, music, two world wonders and wonderful company. I was fortunate enough to have visited 5 countries with family and friends through studying abroad. I appeared on TV and asked questions as an intern and I learned about my strengths and weaknesses.

I created strong relationships with old friends and made some wonderful new friends. I totally believe that you find your best friends in college – or just become better and closer with some great friends. I joined organizations – SSA (best one to take part in), great BBQs and amazing days with The Crew zip-lining, laser tag, bowling and days at Alki 🙂 (love you all).

I learned a bunch of life skills as well – time management, riding a bike for the first time, learning to swim, writing essays last-minute, and prioritizing and learning to take a stand for what I value.

The past 3 years went by extremely fast and it is hard to believe I’ve already been here that long. I am a bit anxious but mostly excited for graduation. Looking forward to starting the next chapter of my life.

BUT I am going to enjoy this last quarter and make even more memories that last a lifetime.

Seasons Change!

Fall season begins following my birthday. A year older hopefully a year wiser.

This past year I learned to push boundaries a bit more and learned a lot about myself in the process. I am truly excited for the future and ready to welcome the achievements, changes, and challenges this new year has to offer.

It’s a big year coming with lots of wonderful plans. Thank God for the people I love and love me.

Alhamdulillah, It’s wonderful to be alive.

Sisterly Love

Beautiful night out with my amazing sister.

It’s wonderful how getting some advice and words of encouragement can really motivate you. I love my older sister and gotta say I have a lot of respect for first-borns. It’s a lot of pressure and responsibility – glad to have her in my life.

It great knowing that no matter what happens my family will always be there with open arms.

Family is the backbone. Protect the younger ones and respect older ones.

Beautiful Day @ Alki

I’d spent a lot of time at home this morning waiting to meet with J. I decided to head to Alki Beach, read the Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, which I’d been neglecting for quite sometime now, and watch the sunset. It was a beautiful afternoon in the Puget Sound. It got dark too soon for me to finish the chapter but I took a few pictures of my surroundings.

Nature is truly sublime. Makes you want to re-evaluate what real beauty is. I choose to find beauty in all of creation

Study Abroad – Part 2

On our first weekend we visited Munich, Germany. We had been in Interlaken for a week and we were told to pack for a 3 day trip as we headed to Munich. The city was unbelievably gorgeous. I say unbelievable because I did not expect much from Germany. I was never interested in traveling to Germany so I expected nothing from the city. However, I am happy to say I was totally wrong. It turned out to be one of the most interesting places I’ve ever visited. I am planning a return.

Anyhow, we went to Germany by train on Friday morning and returned on Sunday afternoon. In Munich we stayed at a cool little hostel where some of the rooms had picnic tables. Our group was divided into rooms of 3-5 and my room was one that had a picnic table. It was really useful.

5 reasons I loved Munich:

= everything was more affordable compared to Interlaken

= the buildings and the city structure was beautiful

= great ice-cream

= NICE PEOPLE – regardless of the stereotypes of German people

= and did I mention the city was absolutely beautiful ❤

After about 6 hours on the train, we arrived in Munich around 1pm and checked in at our hostel then went to go and discover. The next morning we visited Dachau concentration camp for our field trip. This was an extremely emotional trip – much more than I expected. The camp was mostly recreated buildings of the real camp. However, the stories were not any less terrifying. I did learn a bit about the holocaust and the concentration camps which I did not know beforehand. However, I will never repeat that experience, it’s not something I can take.  The most disturbing and my breaking point was seeing the gas chambers and the overs where people were gassed and cremated.

Following this experience we were able to rest a bit and calm ourselves down. That night, we went out as a group and even met a man who was not Somali but spoke Somali. The Sunday morning, we packed and decided to explore a bit more and buy more before our train was scheduled to leave. However, we realized that the city shut down on Sundays. But we did run into some type of a race – the whole area around the churches and our hostel were made into paths for the race. We got there when the race was finished or most people finished and they were relaxing with a great amount of beer and bananas. I was surprised but I believe bananas are the super-fruit so I easily got over the surprise.

Glad to have visited!

Khan Academy – “for students of all ages”

Khan Academy is absolutely fantastic!

My younger sister recently turned me onto this website called http://www.khanacademy.org. This site has numerous videos – over 2400 as the introduction states- that cover a good range of topics from math to history. These videos are available to anyone and everyone who is interested in learning something new or someone who just wants a refresher. The videos are mostly 10-15 minutes long, some are a bit longer and few shorter.

 

The man who started and developed this non-profit organization, Salman Khan, is absolutely wonderful at explaining and simplifying a seemingly difficult subject like trigonometry, Chemistry, finance and my new favorite Biology.

Check it out, its worth the second it takes to click on the link 🙂

Study Abroad – part 1

Switzerland: 

We stayed in Switzerland for the duration of the study abroad trip. We stayed in Interlaken which is a quiet little tourist town, surrounded by hight beautiful mountains. We stayed at the Sonnenhof Backpackers Villa where we were able to leave majority of our luggage each weekend when we visited neighboring countries.

Interlaken became home very quickly. On weekdays we often had one free day and had a class a class for two hours each day for the rest of the week. We went hiking to the Schynige Platte but it was cloudy with some thunder and lightning. We ended up not heading as steep as we wanted but we kept seeing this amazing glimpses of the mountains as the wind cleared up the clouds. It was absolutely beautiful. We took the cable car up and down the mountain. After our hike, we ate from a restaurant located at base of the hike. I had really great ice-cream. But first I accidentally ordered ice-cream that had cognac that was extremely bitter (first and only alcohol experience…. Yuck).

Beautiful Places: Seattle

The city of Seattle. Wondrous place. Absolutely gorgeous. As a Seattleite, its difficult to visit a city similar to Seattle and be impressed. I’ve lived half my life in Seattle and seem to always find a way to appreciate what this city has to offer.  I took the picture below from the Seattle ferry to Bainbridge Island.

For those reading, I encourage you to (re)discover your own city and find your own adventures. If you live or have ever been to Seattle you know what I am talking about. Even if you don’t want to admit it, this city is a magical place. And there is still plenty of room for improvement 🙂

Open mind, open heart.