Golden Moments

Every journey ends at some point. You bring back souvenirs from your travels. In the case of life they're called memories. I sure carry some with me from my time at my university:

1. My very first class on my very first day. This guy turns to me and starts speaking Arabic. So I just looked at him and he was like, "Oh you don't know Arabic? You look Egyptian though".

2. Same day, when I was coming home, after having attended my only class for that day, I saw bhaiyya coming. His class was at 7 and it was 2 then. So I was puzzled. He told me he was coming to bring me my umbrella which I had forgotten at home. The weather forecast ppl had predicted rain for that day. I added him on my msn that day!

3. First time I met Sabeen. Hamdiya and I knew each other from high school, but we weren't friends. She was a year senior. So was Tahira, but Hamdiya and Tahira were best friends, and Hamdiya knew Sabeen. So Hamdiya invited me, Tahira and Sabeen to her house for Iftaar. She was the first one from all of us to get a car. So when she was dropping us back home, I kinda started talking to Sabeen. We sorta made friends. All of us in that car then did become friends. Friendship continues even now :)

4. Tahira despising my brother! So in my second year I was taking Comp. Sci. and Tahira and I were in the same class. We were writing the code for one of our assignments and we were stuck. So I asked my brother, via msn. I had to go ask the TA something, so Tahira came to my computer and clarified something with my brother. When she got it, he told her, "You da man", something he says to me when I get something right. Tahira being Tahira, took it to heart. How I am not a man and how this is insulting or something. He still thought he was talking to me, so he started being more... masculine... about the "praise". That was the start to Tahira da man (as he still calls her and she knows it) becoming famous in our house.

5. End of first year, all of us playing "kho kho" behind MSA stairs. I had made a lot of friends by then. :) Fun times man. That remained the end-of-the-year tradition for almost all the years to come. It coincided with Yasmeen's birthday, so gave us reason to continue on with it. Sabeen would bring the cake though.

6. The Iftaars! So our MSA was awesome in that it would give free Iftaars everyday. Yasmeen was one of the execs. For the people who had evening classes, she would save the drinks, because the drinks were the first things to end. So after we'd pray Maghrib, we didn't have time to get in the line, eat the food, and still make it to class on time. So we'd turn to Yasmeen and she'd have our food ready to go. Made life so much easier!

7. Tahira buying me food. That girl's generosity knows no bounds. Some semesters I used to have back to back classes, sometimes three three-hour long ones. So I'd just rush to the MSA to pray Zuhr or Asr and then rush to the next class. Tahira knew this. She'd buy me me food on those days and would put it in my bag and would just let me know that there's food in there. She took care of me like that. She never got paid for those lunches though. I'd always forget and when I remembered she wouldn't take the money. It's called a blessing when you get friends like that.

8. MSA Eid dinners. Joy and pleasure!

9. BIO! I waited till the last possible semester to take that course. One of my profs was gay. He walked funny, clapped a lot, made that swish sound from his mouth when talking, giggled a lot... oh boy. Liked to talk about his partner too. Dude was bald. I used to go to that class JUST for entertainment. Sure got what I went for. Passed with a D though, but COME ON!, I'm not interested in how electrons get energy and which stage of photosynthesis creates the most glucose or the cycles of cell division. I know I'm a girl and that's enough bio for me.

10. Bumping into familiar ppl everyday. I went to York recently to get together with a group of friends and everyone is new now. No familiar faces. It was a bit strange.

THE BEST PART about York was Sabeen though. Undoubtedly. Shared so much, learned so much, gained so much. And it's nothing short of sheer joy to report that she's asleep in the next room! In her room. We're sisters now. And we will be sisters always inshaAllah. What more?!