Islam and Everyday Life: A Bit More About Me

Inshallah you're all doing well! I just wanted to create this post to help you guys know a bit more about me and hopefully this will help you understand where I'm coming from, or my perspective, when you read some of my future posts!

I was born and raised in California. My parents are originally from Afghanistan and they immigrated to this beautiful country almost thirty years ago.

I live at home with my parents and two younger brothers. I am very blessed to have two very kind and supportive parents. Also, Alhamdulillah I have been blessed with a kind extended family as well that all love me despite all of my imperfections.

I was actually born with a rare disability called möbius (moebius) syndrome. Without going into too much detail this condition causes many people, including myself, to have difficulty making facial expressions and moving their eyes.

The way that this disability has impacted my life the most is that it has severely affected my speech. Basically, it is very difficult for others to understand me when I speak. In fact, this is why I'm so passionate about blogging. I truly feel that I can best express myself through my writing and I hope that I can positively impact the lives of others through this blog :)

I wasn't always such a great student. I remember throughout most of junior high I had mediocre grades. However, it was during my eighth grade year that I was blessed with a wonderful teacher and she really encouraged me to try my best. I started working really hard and luckily it really paid off because my grades started improving.

Of course, throughout my whole educational experience my parents have always been there and supported me whenever I needed help. My father would always help me with math which I struggled with and my mom would help me make all of my school projects look beautiful and very presentable.

I continued this trend of working very hard and earning high grades throughout high school. However, I really wanted to save money and ease my way into college so I attended community college first and then I transferred to a four year university (UC Irvine!) Overall, I do not regret my decision of going to community college first because it really did prepare me for the rigorous curriculum of a top notch public university such as UC Irvine!

A fun fact is that while applying to transfer to a four year university one of the colleges that I applied to was UC Berkeley and to my very pleasant surprise I was actually accepted! I will definitely write more about why I chose UC Irvine instead (a decision that I definitely do not regret and one that I'm happy I made)

I am honestly so honored to have been accepted as a transfer student to Berkeley which is one of the top public universities in the United States.

Trust me, contrary to what my loving parents think I am not a genius :) I am a firm believer that with hard work and dedication anyone can become a successful student and I hope to share some of my personal tips with you guys in the future! I hope that you will continue to join me and support me on my blogging journey!