Obaid's Mecca

Dear Past Self, I just want to say that I'm proud of how far you've progressed over the years. I remember you in high school, dreading to start writing any paper because you knew your writing was no good. Your standardized English scores were consistently low, but you had potential. But then, you started to care about the way your writing was, and you began to put more thought into it. You cared about not only what you expressed on paper, but also how it was expressed. You tried at spoken word and discovered that you weren't terrible at it. Then you tried at short stories and began to improve.  This picture is going to make a lot more sense to you as you progress through this class. No more of that start-the-paper-the-night-before-and-not-revise-it habit. You will learn the value of revising your work, and that you will always have more room for improvement. I even shared my microtheme  with the entire class to get feedback on my work, which is something t

1. I got married at 18 I met my wife in high school, and no it was not arranged. 2. I've memorized the entire Holy Quran Six hundred pages of pure Arabic. It took me two and a half years (full-time), but I was able to do it. It was a religious choice that I decided to do with a few of my friends. 3. I have six other siblings I am one of seven children and second in order. My older sister is twenty-three and my youngest sibling is a toddler. 4. I am multilingual.  I speak English and Urdu fluently, and I've learned enough Spanish and Arabic to hold my own in conversations with native speakers. 5. I have never shaved my beard. My beard has been growing since I was fifteen and I have never shaved it since. I occasionally trim it and shape it to keep it tamed, but never used a razor to get rid of it. I think I've forgotten how my chin looks!