Salaam.
Friends, my sincerest apologies for not updating over the last month and a half. InshaAllah I'll try to do better. Things have been kind of hectic, but are settling down. I have so much to share with you.
Firstly, I've hit the big two-five! Yeah, I'm super old. Okay, okay, not really old haha, but a year older, and inshaAllah a year wiser. I spend the week celebrating among friends, one of whom hosted a party for me at her place. It was intimate and amazing fun.
Second news: I've joined the real world! I have just finished my first month of my first real job. Alhamdulillah! The job search was short, sweet, and successful. I've taken a Lab Associate position with a small start up near the city called Boston MicroFluidics (BMF). I'm owrking on a project to develop a new rapid test for the detection of common STIs at home. The founder B, and his best friend K, are my boss and supervisor, respectively. Yup, there are only three of us in the lab. They are in their late twenties, really intelligent, and incredibly funny. Alhamdulillah it is a good fit for me, professionally, intellectually, and socially. And to top it all off, I work close enough to Char's school that we can regularly have lunch together!
Char and I have had to readjust our plans. Whereas we had hoped to be able to make our relationship official soon, it seems that the more responsible move is to wait until he is more stable in his income. If we have learned one thing from our previous mistake (however sweet and romantic), it's that these things cannot be rushed. To think so is naive. His being further along in his education, and my having financial independence, are two ways to make sure neither family has an argument. While being separate this way will be difficult, we will support each other through the tougher times and inshaAllah this proves to be the better decision in the long run.
There's one last thing I'd like to ramble on about. The view of homosexuality that the general population of Muslims hold. For starters, this is not a problem that is unique to Muslims. Islam's view of homosexuality is straightforward, and yet many people seem to be confused or uneducated on the topic. The short answer is that acting on homosexuality is forbidden, but the feelings are completely natural. It is, as many aver, how Allah made you. Being queer or questioning isn't haraam in and of itself. That's the first part of my qualm with our community on this topic. The other part is worse. You don't believe homosexuality is real? Fine. But one of the most beautiful parts of Islam is its preaching of tolerance. Its teachings of the Golden Rule and how to behave. Where have we come as an Ummah, when all we do is judge others based on what we perceive and treat them not as they were meant to be treated, as human beings?
xoxo
xoxo
