College educated, she graduated!

...any bills she can't front her parents paid it!

Wiz Khalifa, you might be stoned much of the time, but you speak the truth.

As the title of the post suggests, I graduated yesterday! I now possess a Masters in Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University. Quick, someone give me a job! No, really.

Sadist that I am, I went home and found my high school yearbooks. I read through the comments old classmates had left, looked through the pictures that captured my time at high school. 6 years later and I don't feel much different than I did back then. I still don't know what the $%@& I'm doing with myself.

Needless to say, I am now experiencing a quarter-life crisis. For the first time in EIGHTEEN years I will not be going to school when September rolls around. I am no longer a teenager, so I can't justify being a jobless mooch for too much longer. Adulthood is a frightening prospect. Getting a 'real job' is very intimidating. Seriously, 2 weeks of vacation time when I'm used to having four months off?! Come ON! Ahh, the problems of the real world.

In truth, a quarter-life crisis is much deeper than that, but I don't want to make myself cry (again), so I'll end with a song that captures my feelings.

Lupe Fiasco ft. John Legend - I'll Never Forget You

(John Legend)

Take me to that old familiar place
Take me to memories we won’t erase
Take me to all that we had
Good and the bad

I’ll never forget you
I’ll never let you go
I’ll never forget you
I’ll always remember, I hope you know

(Lupe Fiasco)

Let the record reflect the records we set
Best foot forward with every step
And let’s push towards it, never regress
And let’s remember, if ever we get
Down, the places that we came from ’round
And all the good times on the bad side of town
The upside of bad, flip it upside down
Came from the bottom but we up high now
Believe, and from this view we achieved
We looked back at the rules we received
And how we broke those, dismantled and rewrote those
And the ghost still alive in the photos
Sounds of the summer, day and go wise
Cold wind blowin’ through a city on fire
Moments of the past, came here to find you
Not to relive them, just to remind you

Take to that old familiar place
Take me to memories we won’t erase
Take me to all that we had
Good and the bad

I’ll never forget you
I’ll never let you go
I’ll never forget you
I’ll always remember, I hope you know

And let the evidence show, the future’s so bright
It’s never been more, not like tonight
We walk into the glow, right into the light
The past all around us, the time of our life
The first love kisses, the broke heart disses
This is just like a first-class ticket
Back, to the first written rap
The crumbled-up paper and the pen with no cap
The hand-me-down clothes and the unturned hat
The hookers on the corner and the kids sellin’ crack
The needles in the yard where we used to play catch
Stories from the project we could never go at
Or to, these are shades of my youth
Trials of a child, everything truth
Moments of the past, comin’ back to find us
Not to relive them, just to remind us

Take to that old familiar place
Take me to memories we won’t erase
Take me to all that we had
Good and the bad

I’ll never forget you
I’ll never let you go
I’ll never forget you
I’ll always remember, I hope you know

Everything cherished, remembered in my heart
So you will never perish, you will never part
I tell ‘em all about you, drummin’ in the park
We put you in the ground, but I see you in the stars
Go’n, take a bow, a round of applause
The best that ever, always ready we are
Love always shines, that’s how I’ll find you
In case you forgot, I hope this reminds you

Take to that old familiar place
Take me to memories we won’t erase
Take me to all that we had
Good and the bad

I’ll never forget you
I’ll never let you go
I’ll never forget you
I’ll always remember, I hope you know

Duckfoot's identity revealed!

Alright, it's not like it was a big secret anyway but I am going to reveal my identity! Here I am on a wonderful photoblog 'Muslims in the West'. Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal.

Amilah Baksh on Muslims in the West.

Clearly I only have one decent picture of myself and use it every chance I get.

In any case, I love this website, not only because I am featured, but because of it's wonderful purpose: to introduce people to average Muslims - moderate, capable and active citizens in the West.

When I came across that hateful website (the one I mentioned in my previous post) I was shocked and disgusted to read about how these people feel about Muslims (that we are 'leeches', 'rats' and so on). Muslims in the West is a very creative means through which non-Muslims can be introduced to Muslims and see that the vast majority of us are not as ___insert demeaning comment here___ as we are made out to be.

So visit the site, submit pictures of any wonderful Muslims you know and share it with your friends, who can share it with their friends and so on!

I'll see London, but will I see France?

My amazing parents have given me a three-week trip to the UK for my graduation. Yes, my parents are pretty much the best people I know. Being that this is the first time I will be traveling without parental supervision and with my good friends, I thought I would make the most of it. Due to limited funds (seriously Bint Battuta, how do you do it?!) we will only be able to visit countries in the United Kingdom and perhaps one other.

My first thought was LET'S DO FRANCE. I have wanted to visit Paris ever since French class in high school. Eat fresh baguettes, visit the Louvre and of course the Eiffel Tower. And let's not forget the FASHION!

Then I paused...as a Muslim, a visible minority and a hijabi, I wondered if it would be safe for me to visit France. As you may or may not know France banned the niqab (the veil that covers the face, leaving only the eyes visible), and as of April 2011 this law came into effect. If a woman wears the niqab she is denied access to museums and other establishments, fined if seen in any public place and required to take citizenship classes - classes which teach students about gender equality and other French values.

"How can you defend liberty by denying liberties?" Not entirely sure where I read that, but I do know that it nicely captures the stupidity of this law.

And so, back to my concern. Should I go to France? Would it be safe? On the one hand I would like to boycott France altogether. If they don't want to give my sisters in Islam religious freedom, then why should I visit their country and spend my (parents') hard-earned money?

However, this could be precisely what 'they' want. When I was researching (read: Googling) this topic I came across an extremely hateful website. I won't post the link because I don't want this disgusting website to get any more traffic than it deserves. The author states that getting Muslims out of Europe by making them feel unwelcome and unsafe is exactly the point of laws like this. 'That's exactly how we want them to feel' writes the author.

Ultimately, who suffers if I don't go to France? Will it be me, denying myself an experience that I may never have the chance at again, or will it be France, with their 80 million or so tourists a year? I realize that thinking this way might be selfish, but I'd also like to think that I will be standing in support of my fellow Muslimas in France, who are fighting the good fight. I will go to France, wear my hijab proudly and stomp around the Louvre like I own the place. And I will speak my mangled Frenglish because ain't nobody gonna tell me where I can or cannot go! ...except maybe my parents.

You go, girls!

My Obsessions, part 1

For my second post I thought I would introduce you to my first obsession: MAKEUP. It started many moons ago, when I was but a wee ankle biter and would play with my aunt's lipsticks and nail polishes. I was enthralled by the pretty colours, the different textures and the most intoxicating smells. Yes, most makeup does have a rather pleasant smell - take a whiff of CoverGirl's powder foundations, it's pretty much my favourite smell in the world.

This fascination soon became an obsession. My makeup collection grew exponentially, and I began perusing the cosmetics aisles in pharmacies with an enthusiasm I'd previously reserved for brownies and ice cream. Seriously, it's getting scary. I could spend hours in Sephora. Who am I kidding, I do this on an almost weekly basis.

Of course, as with any obsession, I thought I could turn it into something profitable. At age 16 I began investigating opportunities for post-secondary education. The conversation with my mother about becoming a professional makeup artist went something like this:

Mom: Have you decided what program you want to take at McMaster?

me: Umm, I don't know if I want to go to university.

Mom: What do you want to do? *gives cut eye*

me: Uhh, I want to become a makeup artist.

Mom: *silence*

me: *silence*

Mom: I didn't come to this country for you to paint people's faces.

Three cheers for immigrant mentality!

Back to the point - I love makeup, and even though I couldn't pursue it professionally, I still love playing around with the pretty colours. Sometimes (rarely, if I'm being honest) my family and friends are nice enough to let me play with them.

Last weekend my sister got married. Yeah, congratulations to them, blah blah blah, point being, she HATES makeup and so, instead of paying good money to hire a professional, she got me! YAY.

And now, I show off my work. As I previously said, she hates makeup, thus wanted a very minimal bridal look.

Close up, eyes closed...

And a full shot for good measure..

It took me about an hour to do her makeup - a look that a professional could probably have done in 20 minutes. In any case, if you want free, albeit sub-par, makeup done, just give me a shout!

Baby steps into blog-dom.

I have been wanting to start a blog for a LONG time. I have many interests and thoughts, most of them coherent, and I figured that I should start documenting them. So here I am, fulfilling my dreams and what not. Narcissus, meet your match.

Let's get serious. The real reason behind my sudden start is this: as a recent graduate I feel the need to somehow occupy my time while also convincing myself that 6 years of education (read: many, many dollars) have not gone to waste. We'll see how that goes.

In any case, for my first post I thought I would share what has been on my mind lately - HEAD WRAPS.

Turbans, scarves, Carmen Miranda, Erykah Badu, June Ambrose, beautiful HEAD WRAPS. Whatever you want to call them, and to whomever you want to attribute this new fashion craze, there is no denying that the head wrap is IN.

Lucky for me, I've been wearing hijab since I was 5 years old, so I've got it covered. (Hahaha, did you catch the pun there?!)

In any case, I've been trying my hand at some different turban-inspired head wrap styles, and I have to say that I am most pleased.

Here is a picture of me trying out the Afrocentric look. I found some rather helpful tutorials on YouTube that show how to get this look. You'll need a scarf of stiffer material to get the height, not the usual pashminas that most of us hijabis use on a daily basis.

And so there it is, my first blog post. To all those who read it, I thank you for taking your time and I hope it was worthwhile.

duckfoot.