As-salaamu alaikum.
(May peace be with you.)

After reading the title, you might be thinking that this post is about me, but that would certainly be far from the truth.  More on this later though...

My students presented a play today and I must say that Alhamdulilah (praise be to God), it went pretty well.  I was excited, yet nervous even though I wasn't doing any peforming, hah.  I was going crazy at the beginning (as usual... ) and didn't even realize that our audience had arrived and was waiting for us.  Go figure,  .  Anyhow, we started and yea there were a few places where people messed up but the cutest parts were when a scene would end, everyone backstage (most of the class) would look at me in anticipation, as if they didn't have scripts and hadn't been practicing forever.  Then I'd say one word such as "courtroom!" and they'd immediately spring into action, remembering what was to come next.  (Most of the play took place in a courtroom.  The big bad wolf, from the The Three Little Pigs and other stories, was put on trial.  You have to watch it to understand.)  It was a sight to see, alhamdulilah.  They're unbelievably adorable, mashaAllah but clueless at times... I guess that's kids for you!

Anyway, parents seemed to enjoy it.  I wish I could've seen it!  Oh well, thank God for technology and at least I can watch the video later. 

Perhaps the most... or actually two most memorable moments, though, were:

1) watching my kids put on this performance with only some guidance; mashaAllah they've really come a long way
2) the poem. 

Yes, I got a poem.  After the play, the narrator was about to finish the show and then started off with, "But before we go, we'd like to thank our teacher..."  (yes, you can start your "aww"s now ,  because this wasn't in the script I gave her!)  They called me up, handed me a gift and then proceeded to open it for me (haha) and read it aloud to the audience.  It was a framed poem that read:

Your Imprints
Before we leave, there are some words we would like to share
Even though we know you have no time to spare
With your love and affection
You let us know
With mere connection
You helped us grow
Into sparkling individuals who might not show
Your discipline, values, and attention
Have motivated us to mention
How wonderful you are for us
Because you are one soul we can trust
Everything you do comes from your heart
We can't but realize you have an art
To inspire us, guide us,
Motivate us,
To believe in the truth,
To be confident about what not and what to do,
And to strive for the best,
On each and every test
We have come to realize
That you have touched our lives
And have taught us to decide
To choose what is right
We will always remember you as our guiding light
Which fills our hearts with memorable sights
Because of you, this year has been full of style
We will always appreciate your beautiful smile.

Yea, now you should really be "aww"ing.     At the moment, I felt kind of awkward standing in front of all these people and listening, but of course I loved it.  Then later it dawned on me where it actually came from, because I realized that it was so personal and so perfect.  This poem was actually written just for me by my co-worker, the other 4th grade teacher, on behalf of my students.  No one has ever written a poem for me!  (cue the "aww"s again!)

As you can imagine, I melted and still am melting  so I thought I'd share it.  That leads into the title of the post, and if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm certainly not the best teacher ever.  Rather, my teacher, since she has been there for me and guided me all year, is the best teacher ever.  May God bless her always.  As C-R-A-Z-Y as this year has been, (perhaps I should do a post on these crazy events, I really have a lot) I've learned a great deal, especially from her, and will always cherish the enjoyable memories. 

With that, I need to remind my brain that I still have a few weeks to go, since it has decided to shut off lately  (I'm just as bad as the kids!) 

May God help us get through all of our difficult tasks in life by showering the light at the end of the tunnel upon us.  May He always bring us in the company of good people so that we may learn and grow with them.  May He help us remember Him in all that we do by keeping the faith and trust in Him always.  Ameen.

Rabbana ‘aalayka tawakkalna wailayka anabna wailayka almaseer.

“Our Lord!  In You we have placed our trust, and to You do we turn in repentance, for unto You is the end of all journeys.”   - Quran, Surah Al-Mumtahinah, 60: Ayah 4 

Belated Eid Mubarak again to all! 

Haha, yea... I'm slow, I know.  Today was a real Eid for me though, alhamdulilah.  Man I love my kids.  MashAllah.  Since it was our first day back from break we had more of a fun day then an academic day, but oh well.  Although managing an already crazy group of kids on a "fun" day can be quite hectic (and believe me, it was) I still feel that it was a rather productive day and perhaps one of the best days of the year thus far, alhamdulilah.  So let me tell you about it...

In the morning we didn't do much except catch up and practice work... and then, hah, here's a funny story.  We had to go to P.E. (which back in the good ole days was called "gym" but I guess people are high class now...) so we had to walk outside to get there.  Naturally the kids were freezing (even though I tell them to wear their coats!  but who listens?) since it was rather cold today.  After we got inside and were waiting to go to gym class, while shivering one of my students in this sarcastic voice shrieked, "What ever happened to global warming??!!"    haha, it was hilarious.  I just turned around and looked at her laughing.  What does a ten -year-old know about global warming!  It was one of those kids-say-the darnest-things moments, so maybe you had to be there for it.

The rest of the day was pretty normal (for a post-Eid day).  We had pizza and then were sitting down to watch a movie in the afternoon and the other teacher had brought some mehndi cones to put mehndi on the girls if they wanted.  They absolutely loved this and soon her line of girls was really long.  I wasn't going to attempt it and help her out because I'm not exactly skilled in that area but then I said, hey, what the heck, they're just kids, right?!  I mean, how bad could I be???  Hah, man... what an adventure.    But just like some of my kids said, "yay! you did it!"    Indeed, I guess I did, alhamdulilah.  The first few were horrible because I tried copying designs... that is, designs that weren't exactly basic!  And mind you, I'm a rookie at this, beyond belief.  But one of my girls was very supportive and kept egging me on, so sweet, mashAllah.  I kept bashing my designs and she kept supporting me.  Amazing how the roles can reverse at times eh?  I thought so, subhanAllah.  (Usually the teacher's the one being supportive to the kids and kids don't even think to do so to others but this one's amazing, mashaAllah.) 

And as for the rest of my second Eid, as I call it, I got a handful of gifts and nice ones too!  Kids (and their parents... I guess) can be so generous, subhanAllah.  I remember giving gifts to my teachers but they were never nice things... haha, I mean to me they were but I was a kid, what did I know?

That's all for the Eid day celebration stories.  Alhamdulilah my kids are a handful but truly amazing.  They are such characters... you'd have to see them to believe it.  In other words, come visit folks!  We like visitors .   Oh and we got 3rd place on our door decorating contest!  (Miss Aaih took 1st place!  That lil brat!  MashaAllah though her door was niceeee.)  Hah, that was another crazy day... we spent all afternoon working on it and I WORKED these kids.  Hehe.  I didn't mean too but we didn't think we'd finish so we were rushing crazy style and at the end one of the girls was like, "I'm glad we don't have a lot of homework because I'm soooo tired!"  haha.  How tired can you get from decorating a door right?  Sometimes I forget that they're half my size, have half the strength and just that they're kids, hehe.  Oops.

Anyway, subhanAllah these kids have really allowed me to see some rewarding experiences, alhamdulilah.  May Allah (swt) always bless them and guide them on the straight path.  Ameen.  More stories to come when I can think of them, haha (don't worry, more interesting... I promise...).  

However, in a nutshell, the beginning of the year was rather difficult, to put it lightly.  Alhamdulilah it's a remarkably rewarding experience now to see even a fraction of improvement.  That makes me wonder about the unimaginable feeling and reward that one shall be given, inshaAllah for a lifetime of servititude to the One.  SubhanAllah, if such a small worldly task can lead to such a great experience, may God help us earn and achieve the everlasting gardens of Jannah.  I pray that inshaAllah one day we see and feel the true reward for a life lived to please Him.  May Allah (swt) save us from the punishment of the Hellfire.  May He always guide us on the straight path.  May He help us persevere at those incredibly trying times and may we always fight to get past them and not give in, no matter what the hardship may be.  Ameen.  As-salaamu alaikum (may peace be with you).

2:103 And had they but believed and been conscious of Him, reward from God would indeed have brought them good-had they but known it!

Walaw annahum amanoo waittaqaw lamathoobatun min AAindi Allahi khayrun law kanoo yaAAlamoona

As-salaamu alaikum all.
(May peace be with you.)

It's almost been a month since I've updated, hah.. wow... I wonder if I still remember how to do this (not like its that difficult).  Neway, so here's my ISNA 2006 report.  Enjoy. 

The Good

SubhanAllah, this year was a lot of fun.  Perhaps I say that every year right after its over because I'm suffering withdrawal.   But alhumdulilah I really enjoyed hangin out with ma girl Sarah Khan , among others, and meeting new people.  Countless memories... good food (alhumdulilah)... no major problems... good ole walkie talkie fun... attending at least one lecture - fully charged (well as much as I could expect) and this time I actually took pictures!  I think its safe to say that all or most of the other good points can fall under the "countless memories" category.  So here we go...

Countless Memories.... Alhumdulilah

- Telling Sarah Khan that I'm awake enough for her to come visit... and falling asleep before she showed up at the door (about 5 minutes later, haha) and I mean faaaaast asleep.  Like I didn't hear a knock... or my phone...

- "Sneaking out/away" and walkin RIGHT past people... haha, no i can't or will not expand   actually... maybe i will.  Ditchin' a certain place we were supposta be at and visiting el bazaar (one of the only times I got to!) cough... sunday night...particulary when sadaf was like... "i cant get a hold of yusra, i dunno where is... hahaha, we were laughin kinda hard at that, i must say

- The dog whisperer

- ~yusra where are youuu...i'm right here sarahh (like 5 times) - yea I stole this one and the last from S.K.

- listening to walkie talkie drama (perhaps my favorite )

- Chillin in the lounge at 3 am with my partner in crime (probs the only time I fully enjoyed it.. hah)

- Avoiding random people... for certain reasons... and then being forced to walk right through more, hah..  Some clarification... so my partner in crime and I were heading over to the lounge at some crazy hour.. and ofcourse were too tired to be in nethin but pjs.  So we decided to make our best effort to avoid people - and we took the stairs.  It wasn't too bad... until we realized that the stairs only went to the 2nd floor!  (We tried going down further but walked into complete darkness and almost screamed our heads off, haha.)  And that, of course, meant that our efforts were useless because we had to walk through a sea of people... and some who we knew and probs thought we were nuts - oh well, thats the fun in it rite? :)

- hah, that :)  reminded me of mr. prez... hehe.  how could i forget those million :) s

- My new twin    (some people didn't even notice...at allll)  You shoulda seen our pjs too man.

- Takin pics in random places... and poses - ur rite Sofs, they turned out pretty cool, mA.

- Bright red armbands - don't worry, they'll grow on you after awhile too.

- Buying my favorite foods - altho I must say, you'd think I'd have learned by now to take full advantage of this... the only thing really was the fruit snacks and that was mostly Sofi.  But it made some people really happy, it was kinda funny. 

- Roamin el hyaaaatt in pjs... oh goodness.

- Hearing random noises over the walkie talkies at another crazy hour... the girls' looks must have been priceless. 

- Sudsie's bday dinner and our nite-o-fun.  And yes that relates to MSA, just trust me.  haha.  and we were up half the night doin msa stuff neway!   ohhhh, hahaha, sk's look that nite.... ohh priceless yet again! 

- Feeling the satisfaction of improving (at least a little) - coming in not so clueless as to what I'm doing.

- Working with a sweeeeeet team, alhumdulilah.

- Checking two email accounts every day (at least) for about two months... if not longer.  Oh what joy.  Along with that, coming up with "good" emails and responses...

- So I forgot to mention a few things...  such as, walking into my room (at home) after isna weekend and practically saying... where am I??!!   My room looked soooo different!  And I wasn't even gone that long! 

- And the famous dreams... nightmares even?  Monday after I got back, I took a nap, like I'm sure most people did.  Just about every single dream that I had was about isna.  When I woke up, I felt like I was still there.  AND I'm still getting those dreams!  Several days later too... wow... now that's withdrawal at its best. 

- Who could forget the numerous hours of sleep that I've gotten this week... 11 hours one nite!  That's almost more than 3 days of isna put together man.  and simply sitting around, vegitating.  It felt good too, altho I wasted faaaaar too much time (such as with writing this post, i'm supposed to be working through my mound of papers to grade!)  Oh well, life goes on, I hope...

- And the list goes on!  Feel free to add to it.

The Bad

- Wasting food... and lots of it

- Getting upset at people... a certain person - since I'm sure you'll read this eventually, I apologize about that.  My disclaimer:  It really didn't seem like a joke at the time and I was extremely tired of such occurrences by other people.  Anyhow, greatly sorry about that, please forgive me. 

- The CRAPload of work this position entailed... I really did not expect that initially and perhaps wouldn't have taken on the job had I known, especially given other responsibilities that I now have (but I don't think anyone knew at the time).  I think pre-conference work drove me faaaaar more insane than on-site work because it was extremely time consuming.  However, alhumdulilah I got through it and learned a lot at the same time.

- Rejection... yea I didn't like this whole concept, at all.  But so the saying goes, stuff happens.

- That blasted site not working properly...ughhh.  Nothin against the site - its great alhumdulilah, it just caused a lot of grief when it didn't work properly, which unfortunately was most of the time :/

- Leaving ISNA with cash... mannn if I coulda hit up the bazaar even one more time, like Monday morning when the whole freakin world got to go.  ::sigh::   We had our fun tho... hehe

I didn't think my list of bad would be this long... but apparently I keep thinking of things.  Funny how that works...

The Ugly

- DANG we had some flippin SLOBS up in the lounge... shoot, people really need to learn how to pick up after themselves.  That was just a pain... coming to the lounge exhausted - or after being there for awhie (worse), and having to pick up after people.  Simple things too that are not very difficult to clean up - like half-eaten food (which you shouldn't waste to begin with!), dirty napkins... opened pop... papers.. pens... notes... etc.  Now I understand that sometimes we may forget or leave our meal to go do somethin real quick, but jeez louize come back and clean it up!  I'm talkin about people with paperwork too... there was a lot of that!  For some reason I had high hopes that this year the lounge wouldn't get trashed but man I was wrong.  Free food isn't enough for people... they gotta go and be all jungli about it.  That just pisses me off... mannnn, ok I'll stop now...

- People freakin complaining about some FREE food they were getting.  I mean, first off, if u weren't a volunteer, you had no business being in the lounge.  Yet I was nice about it and let it slide maaaaaany times.  But then some people had the freakin audacity to turn around and talk smack about the HOURS of work that was involved to get everyone that free food.  That again really just ticked me off... I wish someone who actually deserved it got the brunt of my anger/annoyance.  Perhaps in a perfect world tho... or next time even (if there is one), sorry again.  So bottom line to all, don't freakin complain when someone is doing something nice for u.  It's FREE for God's sake... and its FOOD.  What more can you ask for?  What more should you ask for when there are thousands of hungry people around the world???  And I must say... alhumdulilah the food was faaaaar better this year than last, seriously alhumdulilah and no that wasn't my doing and I'm certainly not taking credit for it.  Shout out to Maida, among others, who put in a lottttt of work to get everyone those delicious FREE meals.  And to Saqib for Jimmy John's... yum!  Allllll the help was greatly appreciated.  We had some major co-neck-tions goin this year, alhumdulilah man.

Along with that, I wanna say that Alhumdulilah I had a lot of fun working with everyone this year and altho I disliked/regretted volunteering many times within the last few months (much more than I expected), in the end it all became worthwhile - subhanAllah. 

So now its time to end this... inshaAllah.  Thank you to everyone for allllll your help, hardwork, dedication, support.... all that good stuff.  Thanks to all the people I put to work, tj and other chairs, especially waiting around and then carrying food, drinks, etc. in for us - the mounds of it.  Thanks to all the people that put up with me, yes allll of you.  Alhumdulilah we really had a good team going this year and I think without it, I wouldn't have come back.  And the same goes for the future... if there is to be one...  Dun dun dun...   Take care peeps.  Ahh, there, I think I'm set with posting for at least a month now... its certainly long enough right?  Oh come on, you know you read every word!  hehe.  Hasta luego!

Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo in tansuroo Allaha yansurkum wayuthabbit aqdamakum

47:7 O ye who believe! If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly.

فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَه - 99:7

Faman yaAAmal mithqala tharratin khayran yarahu

99:7 And so, he who shall have done an atom's weight of good, shall behold it 

May all the good deeds that everyone did to help run the MSA “Conti” have been with the sincerest intentions and may they all be accepted.  May Allah (swt) generously reward everyone in this life as well as the Hereafter for their great efforts.  May He help us all in continuously contributing to the community.  May He (swt) always guide us on the straight path and bring us closer to Him with all of our actions.  Ameen.

As-salaamu alaikum warahmat Allah.